Just installed Oblivion... AGAIN.

[Erana]

TES has never been as much a storyline game as much as a Fantasy world game.

Still, with Morrowind, there was something much more satisfying about roaming around. I put so much time in that game, and I never ever actually brought back the dwemer puzzle box.

Oblivion is stunted, in my opinion, by the feeling that you're just running around the rim of a giant cereal bowl, and every dungeon or so, you have to travel all the way back to wherever your home is and deposit your loot in some container.

Also, Oblivion is the most generic game ever.
Generic... well, rather than making a list of things that are generic, it would be far more efficient to name something not generic in it..
Um... Hrm... This is taking genuine effort.
I guess the cat people with a collective taste for narcotics is pretty unique, save other Elder Scrolls games.

With Morrowind, the game had a distinct visual style, and social atmosphere that, while obviously cardboard, felt more actively engaging to me.

 

[badgersprite]

I think the thing with Bethesda games is to come away with your own story. Sure, the story in Oblivion itself may be absolutely horrid, but the stories I can make up about my character, justifying what they do, and elaborating on guild quests? I find myself lost in that game for hours sometimes that way.

Ahh, now that is something I agree with.
I only brought up the story, because the OP mentioned he just 'didn't care' about the main quest, though upon re-reading the OP, I see he was talking about the game as a whole.
Whoops! Oh well. I stand by my statements.

I think you've both nailed it. That was the experience for me, at least. The Main Quest in Oblivion never really appealed to me, but The Dark Brotherhood? That was great. There were so many different ways to finish those quests. And all the sidequests added to that - shaping your perception of your character, and what was happening in the world.

It turned out I was roleplaying as an anti-social thief who didn't really give a crap about the fate of the world or the people in it - at least, not until Oblivion started intruding into Tamriel and fucking with my character's sources of income. "HEY! Bugger off, Dagon! This is MY world, damn it!" No wonder I got so attached to my Dunmer. <3

Bethesda's open world games are a great example of letting your actions define you. I really do think they made a great game in Oblivion. Sure, it had some flaws (overambition being one of them, considering the size of the world map), but none of them ruined the game for me, and I think they're all ones that can be easily fixed, and largely have been, if Fallout 3 is any indication.

 

[Lovelocke]

Very glad to see a sensible discussion got going here. Reading over some of the posts, I feel like some of the stuff I couldn't put to words has been verbalized:

"Very generic world, Morrowind was more distinct" - I think that's probably the biggest detractor for Oblivion for me. For whatever reason, the game was impressive but uninteresting. Fallout 3 is "Oblivion with guns", but in spite of FPSes being overplayed, Fallout 3 managed to be amazingly fleshed out and engaging: Even some of the smaller side quests managed to grab me more than most games in the past five years... I think simply being "Midevil Fantasy" isn't enough anymore: Maybe that's also what gives World of Warcraft its edge over other MMOs (aside from accessibility/learning curve).

"Its more about Creating your Own Story" - This I definitely understand, and that's part of the draw to RPGs like this: But Oblivion seemed to *punish* you for straying "in your own way". Walk too far to the right, you get slain by hooded wierdoes while you lug around 500 pounds of rusty iron crap and rat meat... walk too far to the left, you get killed by magic bees. Hell, you walk down a road long enough (a long standing safe harbor in RPGs) and something arbitrary (and of a higher level than you) wanders in from the woods to kill you. In Morrowind? Fallout 3? You could rob people of some high level stuff right at the beginning if you like... Oblivion seems to be nearly impossible to do (without luck and repeat quicksaving).

"You can spend hours in mods" - That's cool... but doesn't it offend you that so many people spent so much money on a game by Bethesda to play free user mods? It's like they invested all that money, time and talent to create a startlingly detailed skeleton of a game to rely on bored (see: Unpaid independent talent) gamers to create "more interesting stuff"? A game that requires entire COMMUNITIES out there to make it interesting isn't the hallmark of a great game, it's a desperate plea for a high profile developer to make "game creation software worth a damn" to purchase (something that isn't RPG Maker or FPScreator, though for all of its bugs I do see and recognize it's value).

I don't know... that shed any light?

EDIT: I will also mention one thing I am completely ashamed of - Though I've logged so many hours into Fallout 3, I still haven't PURCHASED it. I plan on it this Christmas though, provided it somehow drops below $50 (Oblivion is still $30 for Christ's sake).

 

[AtticusSP]

Mod the fuck out of it and it'll be pretty fun.
Not as good as Morrowind, but still a satisfying experience.

 

[Master_Corruptor]

I allso recently installed oblivion.. but purely to mess around with duping and stress testing my machine =)

spawning 1000 shirts = a fountain of clothes apparently