I'm drawing a contrast between good incentives---providing the player quests/options that allow them to express their character through action and dialogue---and poor incentives---redirection through contrivance, irrelevant miscellaneous quests, and the compulsion to have a clean journal. You can say, "Well, just don't do those quests," all day long, but that's no different than saying, "Well, just don't grind for attribute multipliers." It's a problem and it should be addressed. The solution is to provide legitimate incentives that compel a player to experience content because it provides further means of expression, instead of design that functions more like an itch that must be scratched.
That precisely the problem I'm talking about. Player's should feel compelled to explore new areas, towns, cities because they are compelling in and of themselves. If the reason a player is exploring is simply because they've a quest in the journal telling them to do so, then Bethesda has failed at creating a compelling world. They've cheated.

They actually make it from ground up every game, im quoting Todd tho.

Yeah, it always did kind of annoy me that I had to join people like the Dark Brotherhood and the College of Winterhold on my current pure of heart, goody two-shoes character that was strictly Dovahkhin just to learn all of the shouts. And its kind of annoying how it does give you the ability to join every guild/group in the game.

You're actually stating opinion. Since when is "because I wanted to" not a good enough reason to explore somewhere? Why do you need a reason?

Obviously it's an opinion, but one evidently shared by Bethesda. If it weren't, they wouldn't have felt the need to constantly direct players towards that content. On the other hand, the lack of meaningful choice and consequence is not an opinion. It's a simple reality. If that doesn't bother you, then that's fine. But I think it would be disingenuous to suggest that providing players the ability to more fully express their character's motivations and inclinations leads to less compelling narratives.

Then what is compelling content?

No, again, this doesn't work that way. NO games work that way.

You cannot just tell them "go out explore, there are interesting stuff out there, honest!". Frankly the real problem tend to be that there are too many content to go out and explore, just so that you cannot even begin. You need an overal goal, you need a head start, you need a guide for that, players won't be compelled to explore by themselves even if the content is "compelling", how would they know that, you go out and explore to figure it out.

And again all games do this, New Vegas did it more and forced you on the path even more, Morrowind did this, the following the main quest makes you visit multiple towns in a row so you can do the sidequests found there. Guild quests makes you basically to do multiple quests in different towns...

I really don't know where you got this idea of design, but games don't work that way.

You are pretty much forced to join the CoW to proceed with the main quest.

You are pretty much forced to join the Thieves guild to complete the No Stone Unturned quest.

For the DB and the Companions, Bethesda shoves them down your throat.

I feel so free when playing this game.

Now while I do love skyrim I have always said since playing fallout 3 that this game needs more moral choices. While skyrim improved this a bit and gave us just a little bit more moral choice it still was lacking much choice. I think FNV handled the factions a lot better than skyrim. I agree with the OP in that they shouldnt jus assume we wanna do everything. Although I also think that its is nice to have that option though. For example whatbif I am roleplaying a character who was in the coll of winterhold but than goes rogue and gets exiled aand decidedes to join the dark brotherhood. In a way it does allow more roleplaying freedom.

That's a problem with a lot of games, not just TES. With improving graphics, something has to be sacrificed; even on the current machines. I bet we'd have a lot more compelling stories and quests if Skyrim's graphics were on par with Morrowinds overhaul, moreso if it was on par with vanilla Morrowind.

You're misunderstanding me. I have no problem with meaningful quests that take players to different areas. That's because meaningful quests are interesting, generally. Of course, it should make sense that the quest takes you where it does, and that narrative should be a compelling piece of content itself, and ideally it should give the player the chance to make meaningful decisions with meaningful consequences. What I do not like are the irrelevant miscellaneous quests that offer nothing of interest, serving only as a means to directing the player to real content.

Let's do that then. Priorities, priorities!

Morrowind's main quest? It was much better written than Skyrim's, as Dagoth Ur was a lot more than one-dimensional bad guy ala Alduin. Perhaps best of all, the ending was climactic and I actually felt like I accomplished something after finishing it. With Skyrim, it just felt... empty.

Do what? I didn't suggest anything

The ending is an obvious line up to an expansion, it was left like that for a reason =/

Sacrifice graphics, of course!

I so disagree with that. Yes, when you're working with the same outdated hardware you've had for six years and you want to improve graphics, sacrifices do have to be made. Storytelling isn't one of them. Different departments. The only reason we don't have compelling stories is because Bethesda did a crappy job with their writing.

What we know for sure did happen with Skyrim, though, is that they had this brilliant new system called Radiant Story. They thought it was so great, they tried to integrate it into everything. Eventually they realized it wasn't going to work, though. Then they had to scrap it all and redo a lot of quests.

How?
Dagoth Ur is as one dimensional as it gets. "FIRST MORROWIND, THEN THE WORLD" That's it, that's his motivation.

And how is the ending cinematic compels you to do anything, you don't see it until you finish the damn game!
Yeah, no, the two have no connection whatsoever.

Oh yea. Duh, that would've made sense

Bit late now, though, lol. Still, if they remade Skyrim but lowered the quality of the graphics to allow them more space on disc to work with, they would stand a chance to fix the majority of the bugs pre-release, redundant dialogue, lengthen questlines, add in a reputation system, etc.

And I bet that the majority of people that already bought Skyrim would still buy it... then bring out a mod that would return the graphics to what they are now, lol.

I know they are different departments, but discs only hold a certain amount of information. Something from almost every department would've been cut, it happens with pretty much every game; and not all of it makes it into DLC.

This. The OP makes it sound like the game should go 'You are a warrior, you can't do the college of Winterhold quests.'

No, you aren't limited and certainly can be the Jack of all Trades. That's exactly the point. You can do whatever you want. I, for one, chose not to do the thieves guild or mage quests on my warrior, because I wasn't a thief or Mage and it didn't fit. I could have done it. But I chose not to.

From what I've heard, Skyrim does not fill the disk.

So you paid no attention to anything that was said during Morrowinds main quest?
It's not Dagoth Ur's over all goal that makes him three diamentional, its the history and story that fuel his motivations.

Alduin has no History or story short of "HURRRR DURRRRR, KEEEL DEM ALL!".
There was lore regarding Alduin prior to Skyrim that was quite in depth and fascinating, but it got retconed for derp.

I honestly couldn't tell you because I have no means to check. Maybe this isn't the case with Skyrim, but I bet my theory about people still buying it with MW graphics would be right if it meant they could afford, as far as disk space goes, to add more stories, improve on the old ones, fix the bugs, etc., etc.

The strength of Morrowind's main quest lies more with it's presentation and pacing than what the story ultimately boils down to. In the end it is just another "ancient evil rises to consume to world" story, but it comes at this from an interesting perspective. You see first hand the tension between each major faction. You learn of the conflicting interpretations they have of history and religion. You are a reincarnated hero, but for the first half of the main quest you play secret agent. The second half is largely focused on diplomacy, as you let everyone on the island use and abuse you toward their own ends. It ends with you playing commando, scouting Dagoth Ur's area of influence, assassinating his generals, and finally the god himself. It was a much more subtle and multilayered (not terribly so, but marginally) take on an overused premise.

It still lacked meaningful choice and consequence was pretty minimal. That's what I'd have hoped to see improve over the years.

Old timers, perhaps. But I highly doubt it would have attracted nearly as many newcomers to the series as it did if it had such dated graphics. It's generally not the stories that first catches people's attention. It's how the game looks. The stories are what keep them.

I don't know. Bethesda is a media darling and they've got a marketing budget out the wazoo. They could probably play it like they were making something really sophisticated and guilt everyone on the fence into buying it lest they be seen as uncultured philistines by their gamer brothers and sisters.