Was Morrowind really the best?

[Gankytim]

Morrowind trumps Skyrim in everything but graphics.

More intuitive and player guided character leveling? Morrowind

A setting that was designed in order to break fantasy games away from boring repetetive "realistic" fantasy environments? Morrowind

Length in ALL quest lines? Morrowind.

Amount of spells, weapons, skills and quests, altogether? Morrowind. ("Infinite" quests of Skyrim notwithstanding.)

Pretty graphics? Skyrim.

Gameplay that went deeper than W+M1? Morrowind.

Let's face it, you prefer Skyrim to Morrowind? You're a graphics whore.

 

[Hagi]

Here's the reason I still think Morrowind is the crowning piece of the series.

Skyrim does more things better, but everything Skyrim does other games yet do even better (although without the things Skyrim does worse).

Morrowind does fewer things better, but those it does do better you rarely see in other games and never really of that level of quality.

Just the world of Morrowind, the simple sense that it was it's own real world. You could get lost like you simply can't in Skyrim or any other game. You could explore and actually discover things even if you don't have the correct prerequisite quests. The factions you could join actually interacted and doing certain things had real consequences preventing you from other paths.

And it's easily seen in the modding efforts. Compare the efforts of Skywind (Morrowind in Skyrim's engine) vs the efforts of Skyblivion (Oblivion in Skyrim's engine), the difference is immense.

And I can guarantee that when TES6 comes out the first major project of that kind will start with Morrowind. It won't be Oblivion, it won't be Skyrim. Because when it comes down to those few qualities that truly define the Elder Scrolls Morrowind still reigns supreme.