I loved Morrowind it was an amazing game but it was not without its faults. It was not perfect but it had something that very few games had. It wasn't just Oblivion and Skyrim that disappointed when compared to that classic modern games in general can't hold a candle to it and I'll tell you why.

It wasn't all about graphics it was about story, lore and scene setting. The graphics were awful till modders got their hands on it (you can say that about any Bethesda game, they make great games with awful graphics it's kind of a trademark) but the gameworld was incredible to live in. You met characters who could give you the history of the world and explain everything in it and there was a LOT to explain. There were rival factions with deep backstories that you could lose yourself in completely without even touching the main quest. It was an experience as much as it was a game. So much text to read in the dialogues and the books everywhere such a chore except somehow back then it was not a chore it was a joy.

The only games that came close to it in terms of creating a real world (in my opinion, obviously before some [censored] points out that a thread with my name on it is my opinion) with believable characters and events were Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and Planescape Torment. Neither of those games would last a second today and would probably be panned by all the critics, so would Morrowind. There were no voice-overs you had to read USING YOUR EYES an awful prospect for some people and as for digesting the information well to hell with that just give me a damn quest I am in a hurry to 'beat' this game and it's exactly that mindset that destroyed RPG's as we know them.

Skyrim is dumbed down because people are dumbed down. If people weren't so stupid Skryim wouldn't be either. If people weren't in such a hurry to 'beat' everything and boast about it on the internet Skyrim wouldn't be so vacuous and one dimensional and give you all the tools you need to do exactly that. If people weren't desperate to do everything in a hurry without actually playing and enjoying the game there would be no fast travel but the people get what the people want so there you have it.

There will never be another epic RPG because there is no market for such a thing anymore. That whole annoying 'thinking' nonsense is a thing of the past. That's why Bethesda can get away with cramming their games on to consoles to give people a quick fix because games no longer require story or ponderous thought they require nice graphics with an easy 'I won the game fast get me I am so leet' fix.

So next time you point out Morrowind is a crap game (usually without having even played it) be mindful that it's only crap by today's standards where a game really is no longer game it's a quick blast with pleasant eye candy and full-on bragging rights to impress your buddies.

I am not saying Skyrim is a bad game it is not in fact it is better than most games around at the moment I am simply saying that games have been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator because people have. Stupid is the new black.

There will never be another epic RPG because there is no market for such a thing anymore.

Beautiful, again another OP Troll has to insult the rest of the forum just so he can have his point taken seriously. I hate to remind the OP but Morrowind's combat isn't exactly great, it does have a good world and decent story but the combat is just terrible, hit, miss, miss, miss, hit, who wants to play under that system, not to mention that you can exploit it to hell much worse then you could in Skyrim. My last point, if Morrowind came out today guess what it would be, wait for it, it would be Skyrim because of the tech and the target audience.

I'm not asking to go back to the Morrowind game itself, merely the Morrowind style - where substance was hip and flash was bonus. Skyrim's style reeks of the idea that "flash is hip and substance is so 5 years ago". I don't hate Skyrim, it's a great game. It's just not the RPG I expected from Bethesda nor is it the kind of Elder Scrolls game I expected. What I expected was a deep, rich storyline with lovable characters and branching quests, in addition to nice graphics. What I got is a game that blew my eyes away graphically, but failed to impress storyline, dialogue, and quest-wise.

I can't really agree with much of the OP. Reading text is not playing a game, it is reading. Reading is not fun, playing a game is. Reading has nothing to do with role playing or story telling and has no place in an RPG except for the in game books. Any delivery of story content needs to be portrayed as realistic as possible, which means you see it with your eyes, or hear it told to you by an NPC or both. The only thing I can agree with is that Morrowind had a deeper back story but even that is a subjective opinion since that said delivery was one dimensional (text). At least in Oblivion and Skyrim the delivery of all story related content is delivered in real time with animated characters either doing the action in the story or telling you, like the real world. You can see it and hear it happen, not read it like your a mute person.

It's easy to sit back and write dialogue, since that is about all they could do back then. The game play was non existent (lame turn based combat, with horrid animations and sound effects) so all they could do was write. The characters were so unbelievable to look at and the world wasn't even remotely convincing. It was barely beyond the old zork text games that had no graphics. So since they didn't have the tools to make a decent game back then, they used what they had which was to write a bunch of text. Now they tell the story in real time with voice acting and animations and scripted events. Much better IMO.

The real problem with Skyrim is the lack of choices in the quest lines. You cannot role play at all since there isn't really a tree of dialogue, it's a branch that ends up in the same place no matter what you say with zero consequences. They made a lot of progress with Fallout 3 then threw it in the trash for some reason. Biggest flaw IMO.

I've been playing this series since Daggerfall, bought all of the games close to when they were released (give or take a month or two). All of the games were easy, never challenging, always easy to break, etc. Nothing has ever changed imo with the TES series except that the combat has been steadily getting better and they're atleast making an attempt to remove some of the more gamebreaking features.

I finished Morrowind in about 60 hours into it, bought the game when it was released. Morrowind was probably the easiest game of the series for me. You could max almost any skill in the game without even having to be in combat, except for the offensive melee skills. It took very little time to do this, skills built up very quickly and the game was also very linear. You were essentially funneled through series of mountain ranges that all gradually scaled upwards in difficulty the further you progressed into it. Once you reached level 30 you could solo Vivec himself without even having to drink potions or heal yourself. The game was stupidly easy.

Anyone who uses the term "dumbed down" to describe Skyrim and then subsequently uses Morrowind as an example of a game that isn't dumbed down is either a Rtard or they're being intellectually dishonest or simply an abscent minded hipster.

None of the games were 100% linear but Morrowind definately felt more linear to me than any other game in the series, probably due to the static leveling and once you figured out the level ranges of certain areas you basically have very little reason to replay the game.

You say games are not about difficulty but many of the people spouting negativity about Skyrim seem to use terms like "Dumbed down", to describe Skyrim. Im not saying you're one of these people but I have been reading a lot of junk on here lately and the parrots are out in full force repeating it.

I just laugh when I hear people say this things, I've played Morrowind and its one of the easiest games ever, there is NOTHING complex about it. So, it makes you sound like an idiot when you try and suggest that Morrowind tested your "intellectual" capacity any more than Skyrim does.

I think we are all missing the real reason for Skyrim's "dumbing down".
Beth wanted to put in new features and better graphics into this game.
But, how do you do this on an aging system like the Xbox?
You have to "shoehorn" it in and the only way you can do that is by taking out other things (stats, spell creation, even an armour piece).
Some things where taken out for stream-lining, to be sure, but most of it was simply due to the limitation of the Xbox (imho).

I think we might need a new internet rule "When in doubt, blame the Xbox".

Skyrim is dumbed down because people are dumbed down.

This describes a lot of Morrowind-fan complaints pertaining to "Morrowind did this better" without explanation. To make a better game, we need to look into the future. Fussing about the past will not solve anything if we don't learn from them and use that knowledge to help the future.

To make a better game, we need to look into the future. Fussing about the past will not solve anything if we don't learn from them and use that knowledge to help the future.

Not meaning to nitpick, but OP Bethesda games don't have bad graphics. They have good graphics. However, some games may just not age well, or in the case of Skyrim, has beautiful graphics, but bad shadows and crappy looking hair.

I find it very interesting that people complain about fast travel and yet...
A. You don't have to use it
B. In Skyrim, since you can no longer fast travel to non discovered major cities it is a factor of not spending time walking on the same path
I agree with the point that Morrowind fans see through rose tinted glasses. The New Vegas DLC "Old World Blues" has a term that is its namesake. Old world blues is explained at the end of the DLC to mean "so focused on the past that they cannot see the present let alone the future". This describes a lot of Morrowind-fan complaints pertaining to "Morrowind did this better" without explanation. To make a better game, we need to look into the future. Fussing about the past will not solve anything if we don't learn from them and use that knowledge to help the future.