I actually had the same problem as the OP with Oblivion, I was totally pumped up for it because I loved Morrowind, but the game absolutely annoyed me to death.
I think the main problem is rampant in a lot of RPG's nowadays, developers go for quantity over quality when it comes to quests, or rather, in Skyrim and Oblivions case, they didn't seem too bothered to try and make their quests a bit lively or amazing at all, or is that just me? The overall writing in these two games seemed rather uninspired and hurried.
To be honest, my biggest problem is that I compare every RPG to Baldur's Gate 2, that game has some mindblowing sidequests that are just as epic as the main story line, and it's only a semi-open world, still on a linear track but with lots of room to fool around.
I guess it's actually quite simple: If you put more effort into making an open world, you can't put that effort into making quality quests!
I think the main problem is rampant in a lot of RPG's nowadays, developers go for quantity over quality when it comes to quests, or rather, in Skyrim and Oblivions case, they didn't seem too bothered to try and make their quests a bit lively or amazing at all, or is that just me? The overall writing in these two games seemed rather uninspired and hurried.
To be honest, my biggest problem is that I compare every RPG to Baldur's Gate 2, that game has some mindblowing sidequests that are just as epic as the main story line, and it's only a semi-open world, still on a linear track but with lots of room to fool around.
I guess it's actually quite simple: If you put more effort into making an open world, you can't put that effort into making quality quests!