I'd say that all of the games aren't very deep in and of themselves.

Skyrim relies a lot on immersion, but you have to be blind to not see that the quests are lacking in depth. The world is great, the combat is gratifying but the quests just fail to sate an appetite.

Are Oblivion's quests more satisfying than Skyrim's? Yes. Not by much, but they are generally more thought out. Unfortunately the world is dull, repetitive and boring.

Does Morrwind's quests in terms of depth destroy Skyrims? Definitely. Oblivion's? In quite a few areas, but not overall. Morrowind's quest system's writing simply had a larger quantity of it, but it ultimately around the same level of Oblivion's in a lot of areas, you just weren't spoon-fed where you had to go so it felt more immersive when you finally figured that the Dark Elf wanted the Urn from whatever Dwemer ruin, instead of a marker pointing that out to you. The world in Morrowind was also as good as Skyrim's, in terms of immersion. Unfortunately the combat and leveling have made such significant strides since Morrowind that it is significantly worse in those aspects.

So Morrowind may be the deepest, Skyrim the most entertaining, and Oblivion the in-between experiment, but none of their quests are deep when compared outside of the series, their worlds are great however.

The only real deep lore aspect of the series has been cemented by the writers of the in-game books, which has been steadily built upon since Arena; and until we get the level of writing that can be found in the in-game books into the quests of the actual game, I don't think I can call any of the titles "deep." They simply have a high level of immersion (that's been increasingly in different areas with each game) for when you go fetch that urn for the hundredth time.

+1million.

This ruined the game's immersiveness for me, especially after killing ulfric, and having NOTHING CHANGE... Really? Freaking really? WOW! HUUUGE kick to the groin...

I swear the extended ending addon better fix this problem... Such a great game but it feels so incomplete...

They're not doing something different. They are taking stuff out of the game. The current leveling system is a joke.

No, Oblivion's leveling system was an absolute joke. Skyrim's makes sense.

I never said Oblivion's was good. Quite frankly, I think they both svck and both have missed potential.

I only know that I actually liked having a skill for everything, no matter how redundant or illogical it might have been. See, that's what I see as one of Skyrim's major issues; it hates redundancy. I hate NASCAR with a passion, but I do know that those headlights are just stickers, but why do they keep them on? The car looks funny without them. Same thing goes for my view on Skyrim. Then there is this obsession with making everything "OMG SO KEWL AN EPIX!!!1111!". Really Bethesda? You turned the Thieve's Guild questline into making a rather one handed deal with
Then don't even get me started on the College members who seem to be completely oblivious to history.


I also don't like the leveling system. Skill level only matters to get more perks, and those perks matter so much that it kills all sense of progression. I also don't like the removal whiting out of attributes. They are still there, just completely stripped of all its aesthetics.

Then there is Winterhold, in the fact that it even exists. Awesome city full of cultural diversity and apple pie? NOPE! It fell into the ocean.

I like the levelling system...

I love both games and while I feel Skyrim improves on many aspects I do prefer some things in Oblivion. Mainly the side quests such as the Mage and Fighter Guilds. I definitely felt like I was earning my way up in Oblivion. Skyrim seems shallow when it comes to many of the quests. Plus the Arena in Oblivion was a fun diversion. The Main Quests in both stories aren't exactly great but I do prefer Dragons over Oblivion gates.

The leveling system, the world itself, combat, and dungeons are more enjoyable in Skyrim. However since the quests are such a big part of the gaming experience for me at least I have a hard time saying Skyrim is a far superior game overall. What you did in Oblivion seemed to have a greater impact on the world or at least more recognition. Simple things like the guards saying "You're the hero of Kvatch, this is truly an honor" was kind of cool. Plus seeing different articles written in the Black Horse Courier added some life to the world. I liked how when you went to mages guilds they often commented on events that had occurred(many thanks to you) in the other cities. I know many will disagree but I feel more immersed in the game world when playing Oblivion, Plus the Quest Journal was better.

Having said that, I enjoy both games and still have a ton of stuff yet to complete in Skyrim.

I forgot to say the other thing I really miss.

Goblins. Not sure why, but I really enjoyed them in Oblivion.

Ugh. Can we all at least agree on ONE thing? Skyrim.... is a game.

I presume Falmers are the new Goblins. I hate them as much as I hated Goblins, so it works for me.

Skyrim has a lot more dialogue and variety of just about anything then Skyrim. There's no way Oblivion could be deeper.

Exactly how? Last time I checked when they took something out they replaced it....attributes and skills for perks....Heck like I said do the math. Skyrim has more of anything then Oblivion. That doesn't really seem like dumbing down to me...

can we compromise on awful simulation?

I.....I can't bring myself to state that Oblivion was deeper in Story...I'm sorry...

Here are some initial thoughts, though I have not explored Skyrim enough to form a definite opinion on which is deeper....

• In Oblivion there were longer and more complex quests for the guild halls, along with back stories
  
• There was considerable lore on Aylieds, Goblins, Daedra, etc. Some of the lore is duplicative with past games like Morrowind so some don't credit Oblivion for that. But there is new lore, and background too
  
• It appears there were more unique NPCs in Oblivion with back stories. I know some might not believe that but it appears to be the case. But I could change my mind after playing Skyrim more
  
• It appears that even the side quests are more involved. Like Collector, Paranoia, the Jermane Brothers, etc. And some were very creative - eg Brush with Death, Unexpected Voyage, Legend of Pale Pass, etc.
  
• The main quest was also rather involved and with what I thought was interesting NPCs and Lore
  
• The cities seem more diverse to me in Oblivion from an architecture perspective. And there was often a background on the count or the cities history. In Skyrim the cities are intentionally similar (Nordish) and I have found a little but not much background on the Jarls or cities.

Again I might change my mind as I play Skyrim more.

Skyrim is the deepest experience of any modern RPG to date

Uhh...no....the Mages Guild and Necromancers was utterly disconnected from the Oblivion Crisis. Few people in the Mages Guild or the Order of the Black Worm seemed to notice or care that Daedra were invading Tamriel, and no one else in Cyrodiil seemed to noticed when the Bruma Mages Guild was attacked by Mannimarco and his minions. It's especially ridiculous at the later points of the Main Quest; they're on high alert for Oblivion Gates, with soldiers coming in from across the province.....and no one notices a group of necromancers just slaughtered the local Mages Guild?

And as for Oblivion having more depth, all I can say is: no, No, NO. To me, it was a mockery of Morrowind, and Skyrim drives how bastardized the world of Oblivion was:

- They retconned Cyrodiil from being a subtropical jungle into a temperate rainforest and grassland, in order to make into generic high-fantasy. Skyrim, at least, did not have its entire biome changed into something generic.
- Cyrodiil lacked any real culture. No distinctions between Colovians and Nibeneans. The citizens seemed like they came from a different fantasy setting. Given the fact that the Elder Council didn't even appear at all, or any lore associated with them, it seems like Bethesda didn't care. At least the Greybeards showed up in Skyrim.
- An unseemly attempt to push black and white morality into the series. Most of the Imperial citizens, in addition to being generic, acted like goody two-shoes at times. And the Mythic Dawn and Necromancers, in turn, were treated as card-carrying villains.
- Speaking of which: not giving the Mythic Dawn or Necromancers as much backstory as the Sixth House Cult in Morrowind. It still bothers me how they went into so much detail behind Dagoth Ur's backstory, and then turn Mankar Camoran and Mannimarco into token evil sorcerers. Even Mehrunes Dagon and Alduin had more backstory than Camoran.
- Horribly botched level scaling. I don't think anything more needs to be said, other than the fact that Skyrim at least went closer to Daggerfall's style of flexible and sensible level scaling.
- Uncanny valley face generation + problematic level scaling any class builds = constantly having to restart characters because of something going wrong in character creation. The face generation was much bigger problem, as you have to struggle to not get a face out of uncanny valley...and even then, characters (especially elves) don't look at all like in Morrowind & Skyrim. I am immensely glad the Skyrim character generator used a modernized version of Morrowind's character art, with customization features.

In fact, if it weren't for the significantly better Shivering Isles expansion (which actually had depth), I'd consider Oblivion to be discontinuity.

These points, whether valid or invalid, seem to compare Oblivion to Morrowind. And not the on topic question of the relative depth of Oblivion and Skyrim. The question has nothing to do with Morrowind.

Just to illustrate that point let's take the first one as an example, since it doesn't appear appropriate to address each Morrowind vs Oblivion point seperately. You say Cyrodiil is generic high fantasy. Well if anything Skyrim is a generic real world northern wilderness. In wandering the lands of Skyrim I see very little that isn't generic. Most of the wildlife is real world (bears, wolves, foxes, walruses, etc) and some prehistoric real world creatures, Mammoths, Saber Tooth Tigers, and generic monsters like Giants, Dragons, enlarged spiders, enlarged crabs. Just a very few holdover unique creatures from Oblivion (Spriggans, wisps). The cities are all generic Norse type towns. So it appears that Skyrim is more"generic" than Oblivion.

So this point doesn't make sense unless viewed from a Morrowind to Oblivion perspective. And the view that Oblivion is not like Morrowind and therefore is so bad everything less must be better than Oblivion.

EDIT: and what face generation and level scaling has to do with "depth" is questionable at least

Another EDIT: to be clear, I am not saying that I think Oblivion is deeper than Skyrim because because Oblivion is less "generic" and because Skyrim is more realistic. I'm just pointing out that even if Oblivion is more "generic" than Morrowind, that doesn't make Skyrim "deeper" than Oblivion. Skyrim may be deeper, but I'm disputing that argument.

WAT IZ DEEP?


But seriously some of these "depth" arguments are really stupid.

Attributes? Skyrim has them. Oh they are not called "strength", "intelligence" or "agility", so they don't matter? Yes, they do.
No effect on the world. So let's see how a much "deeper" game, Morrowind did this so much better? Became Archmage for the Mages guild, now joining the Fighters guild. What's this, I'm treated like dirt? Let's kill Vivec, there's a secret way to finish the game and maybe others will say something interesting? No they don't even notice. How about killing all house leaders? Nobody outside the houses cares. I'm sorry, this argument might make sense if Morrowind would do ANY better, but it doesn't in fact, it does worse! You are being attacked, chased by the guard, but don't freat, there's a door, they cannot chase you trough that solid door! How about robbing a house, you just have to wait until the owner leaves... oh wait, they never do.

Skyrim is about as deep as freaking Morrowind

Personally, I don't think we need Butterflies, 10 races, the option to make your character male or female, any of the sliders, or weather conditions.

I also don't think we need to have all of the skills seperated. There should only be "Warrior" "Thief" and "Mage" and you just put a point into which one you want, thereby increasing everything associated with it.

Stamina is worthless and should also be removed. We don't need it.
All of the traps that don't kill you can be taken out because we have auto regen.
Any NPC that doesn't give you a quest is pointless and should be removed.
We don't need starter quests in the guilds either; we could make it where you join the guild and immediately do the mission to save the guild and that's that.
There are also no point in character levels. Just get the one point for warrior, thief & mage. Don't even count the levels. They're arbitrary.

Cooking is only decent at like level 1-5, so that can go. No point in alchemy either if you can just buy the potions. We could even remove all dialogue from essential NPCs and just keep putting pointers on the compass.

Hmm... for all of those people who agree that we don't need stats or attributes or [insert cut RPG element here], there sure is a whole lot of other things we don't need either.
In fact, when it comes down to it, we could just spawn the static character in front of the boss at the very beginning.

Nice exaggeration

Please stop, you're not making any sense.

The game world in Skyrim seems to be deeper, but just about everything about the individual characters seems lacking, the removal of attributes is understandable but removing pants, spells and full skills just makes it seem like we got less.

Before the release people were hoping for the return of pauldrons, spears and throwing weapons and what we got was lack of pants and the loss of what seems like half the spells.

They removed pants to make armors more detailed.

also with the way enchanting is in the game having pauldrons and graves would make it even more unbalanced.