Poll of the Day > Controversial Opinion: Oblivion simply has better writing than Skyrim

(+) Yeah! (+)

Skryim plays better, but Oblivion is just outright written better

That's not controversial. The real controversial opinion is that Oblivion is just straight up better than Morrowind in every way

joemodda posted...

That's not controversial. The real controversial opinion is that Oblivion is just straight up better than Morrowind in every way

Lol, Morrowind has such a unique and inspired setting.

Devil_May_Cry posted...

Lol, Morrowind has such a unique and inspired setting.

That isn't always a positive.

joemodda posted...

The real controversial opinion is that Oblivion is just straight up better than Morrowind in every way

Yeah, I can't think of many things Oblivion did better than Morrowind. Just the quality of graphics comes to mind, but unfortunately everything is copy-pasted or randomly generated. I love Oblivion though, and Shivering Isles is perhaps the best expansion of any TES game.

As far as I know that's not controversial

kind9 posted...

Yeah, I can't think of many things Oblivion did better than Morrowind. Just the quality of graphics comes to mind, but unfortunately everything is copy-pasted or randomly generated. I love Oblivion though, and Shivering Isles is perhaps the best expansion of any TES game.

Shivering isles was amazing.

I liked morrowind more but it being skill based on if you even landed a hit keeps me from playing it again. Immersion breaking when you see your weapon go through them and it's a miss

joemodda posted...

That's not controversial. The real controversial opinion is that Oblivion is just straight up better than Morrowind in every way

LOL 0/10

joemodda posted...

That's not controversial. The real controversial opinion is that Oblivion is just straight up better than Morrowind in every way

I don't think enough people exist still that like Morrowind over Oblivion or Skyrim for that to be a controversial opinion

Maybe PO

agesboy posted...

I don't think enough people exist still that like Morrowind over Oblivion or Skyrim for that to be a controversial opinion

Maybe PO

Anyone who has played Morrowind will realize it is better than the other two games in every way except graphics and the fact that Morrowind requires you to hold the stealth button down the entire time you stealth as opposed to the other games making it a toggle.

BlackScythe0 posted...

Anyone who has played Morrowind will realize it is better than the other two games in every way except graphics

mods? because that is the only reason i care about skyrim

Skyrim being less of an RPG than Oblivion is actually a good thing because it makes level scaling far less terrible.

Oblivion does have a better story.
But both are really basic.

Oblivion does most things better than Skyrim.

It just lacks a few features that Skyrim introduced to the series.

agesboy posted...

I don't think enough people exist still that like Morrowind over Oblivion or Skyrim for that to be a controversial opinion

Maybe PO

Nah, I loathe Morrowind. I used to be extremely vocal about it. Mentioned a few times how I traded my copy into GameStop for $1 and still felt like I got the better end of the deal.

Also, I don't think it's that most people today prefer Skyrim to Morrowind, I think it's that the vast majority of gamers have never played Morrowind.

Oblivion was really the first Elder Scrolls game to go mainstream, and Skyrim was the game where its popularity exploded. Morrowind was always sort of the "I liked them before they sold out" game for the digital hipsters. It was just accessible enough for people to know about it (which put it way ahead of Arena and Daggerfall), but still not fully mainstream yet so nerds could talk about how much better it was than Oblivion and Morrowind to try and get credit for being old-school.

agesboy posted...

mods? because that is the only reason i care about skyrim

Morrowind isn't a game that requires mods. Just the official and unofficial patches.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Oblivion was really the first Elder Scrolls game to go mainstream

Pretty sure that was in fact Morrowind. Maybe you don't remember how immensely popular that game was.

oblivion was just being a delivery boy for the real mc >:(

morrowind best game in ALL categories

josh posted...

morrowind best game in ALL categories

except graphics! *shwing*

Morrowind has the best main storyline (easily) and roleplaying of the three games. It also has the weakest combat, music (I'd even put it below Daggerfall), atmosphere (unique doesn't necessarily mean good), and most generic NPCs. All three games are either in or just out of my top 10, though.

Justin2Krelian posted...

Morrowind has the best main storyline (easily) and roleplaying of the three games. It also has the weakest combat, music (I'd even put it below Daggerfall), atmosphere (unique doesn't necessarily mean good), and most generic NPCs. All three games are either in or just out of my top 10, though.

Oblivion and skyrims atmosphere feels like if one asked ai to design generic fantasy games

Justin2Krelian posted...

Morrowind has the best main storyline (easily) and roleplaying of the three games. It also has the weakest combat, music (I'd even put it below Daggerfall), atmosphere (unique doesn't necessarily mean good), and most generic NPCs. All three games are either in or just out of my top 10, though.

I'd have to disagree with you on atmosphere. I remember exploring morrowind with wonder, while wandering through Oblivion with apathy. At least they learned their lesson and gave Skyrim some better environment design than Oblivion had.

BlackScythe0 posted...

I'd have to disagree with you on atmosphere. I remember exploring morrowind with wonder, while wandering through Oblivion with apathy. At least they learned their lesson and gave Skyrim some better environment design than Oblivion had.

Oblivion had better environments than Skyrim imo. Skyrim had better cities/towns though imo

morrowind just beats both in atmosphere/environments imo

I liked the grass in Oblivion. Skyrim was like 90% rocks

Lokarin posted...

I liked the grass in Oblivion. Skyrim was like 90% rocks

Dont forget snow.

Oblivion May have been generic but it was lush and vibrant

something else about Oblivion, the regular houses felt like the right size for their contents. I always felt in Skyrim the houses were significantly bigger on the inside than the outside.

Justin2Krelian posted...

It also has the weakest music

GTFO with that bullshit

BlackScythe0 posted...

I'd have to disagree with you on atmosphere. I remember exploring morrowind with wonder, while wandering through Oblivion with apathy.

I'd disagree. Personally I never really engaged with Morrowind's setting in any meaningful way because it was often too exotic. Oblivion being a bit more grounded made it easier to relate to. And that also took me out of most of the overall plot.

Though part of my apathy towards Morrowind is also because I really disliked the gameplay, which detracted from everything else.

But even when Morrowind is (sort of) revisited in Skyrim's DLC or Elder Scrolls Online, it always just sort of leaves me cold. It's never really resonated with me in the way some of the other provinces did.

Personally..... I haven't played Morrowind

Zareth posted...

GTFO with that bullshit

It's 100% true and you can't deny it. It's solid but massively overrated compared to other ES games. The main theme was great, but only about two other tracks are memorable (Road Most Traveled being one)

I can and I will deny it.

I got about 20 minutes into oblivion (after already putting in well over 1,000 hours into skyrim) then said fuck this, it's too clunky

Lokarin posted...

Personally..... I haven't played Morrowind

If you ever do you should try OpenMW or MGE-XE. You need one of those to play in widescreen and change FOV anyway, but the latter also gives some modern graphical features like AO and DOF. You can also remove distant fog and generate LODs like later games but it doesn't work well in Morrowind IMO.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Though part of my apathy towards Morrowind is also because I really disliked the gameplay, which detracted from everything else.

A lot of people hate the hit & miss dice roll style combat. I always felt it added to the amazing sense of progression you get in Morrowind which is totally absent in Oblivion and Skyrim. You start off barely able to hit anything, run at a snail's pace, and can jump like only 4 inches off the ground, but by the endgame you're basically an unstoppable god who can jump around or fly around and one-hit kill anything.

I love Morrowind but Always Use Best Attack is such a stupid fucking system

Morrowind is the only (main series) Elder Scrolls game that I just flat out refused to play beyond an hour or so. I even beat Arena as obtuse and confusing as that game is. Morrowind just sucks.

Dikitain posted...

Morrowind is the only (main series) Elder Scrolls game that I just flat out refused to play beyond an hour or so. I even beat Arena as obtuse and confusing as that game is. Morrowind just sucks.

Did you play it when it came out? Just curious if that impacts your view, because I loved it when it came out but found it unplayable when I tried to play it a few years back.

Dikitain posted...

Morrowind is the only (main series) Elder Scrolls game that I just flat out refused to play beyond an hour or so. I even beat Arena as obtuse and confusing as that game is. Morrowind just sucks.

Its such a love letter to gaming and arguably Bethesdas most passionate work It is filled to the brim with references

kind9 posted...

A lot of people hate the hit & miss dice roll style combat. I always felt it added to the amazing sense of progression you get in Morrowind which is totally absent in Oblivion and Skyrim. You start off barely able to hit anything, run at a snail's pace, and can jump like only 4 inches off the ground, but by the endgame you're basically an unstoppable god who can jump around or fly around and one-hit kill anything.

Ehh, I think there's still a sense of progression in Skyrim. Sure, enemies will level with you so it's not necessarily as blatant as being a level 40 wargod just smearing level 1 scrubs across the landscape, but as time goes on and you level up skills and improve gear there's still a degree of improvement going on, to the point where early on you might be in serious danger from wolves and bandits, but eventually you'll just smash them into the dirt relatively easily.

BlackScythe0 posted...

Did you play it when it came out? Just curious if that impacts your view, because I loved it when it came out but found it unplayable when I tried to play it a few years back.

I admittedly played it several years after it came out, but I don't think it was that it felt dated. I played Daggerfall and Arena only like 5 years back and while I thought Arena was fine, I LOVED Daggerfall. Easily the best Elder Scrolls game ever.

The problem was that the game felt...linear. Hard to really describe. Essentially it comes down to the "Todd Howard" philosophy. Arena and Daggerfall had a lot of content to them because the developers auto-generated the world and instead spent all of their effort on the side quests and gameplay. With Morrowind, Todd insisted on "hand-crafting" the world, taking away resources from the side quests and gameplay. Worse still, the world is essentially hallways separated by hubs, so it feels even less realistic then the auto-generated world. With Oblivion and Skyrim, they started the shift back which is why I like those games more.

My hope (although I know it probably wouldn't happen) is that they go back to auto-generating the world in Elder Scrolls 6 and instead pack the game with thousands of quests and tens of factions you can join. Just make it absolutely massive.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

this was pretty much the main highlight for me as well. i just can't get into elder scrolls for some reason.

Morrowind is easier to play when you already know the power creep and can look forward to flying around the country side at mach 2 throwing fireballs but it's a hard sell when you need to walk around at min speed casting self-damage destruction 1 for hours.