Why I'll always say Morrowind is the best TES game

[Justiciar]

I believe Oblivion's map was larger than Morrowind's.. but it never felt so vast. I'd be able to spend hours just plodding about the Ashlands*, staring in awe at everything around me, and barely seeming to move. That didn't really feature in Oblivion, for reasons already stated.. it was just tedious in comparison.

I'm told Daggerfall was better, but I've yet to buy it.

* The most memorable landscape in any game I've played.

[Sheogorath]

I believe Oblivion's map was larger than Morrowind's.. but it never felt so vast. I'd be able to spend hours just plodding about the Ashlands*, staring in awe at everything around me, and barely seeming to move. That didn't really feature in Oblivion, for reasons already stated.. it was just tedious in comparison.

I'm told Daggerfall was better, but I've yet to buy it.

* The most memorable landscape in any game I've played.

Oblivion was bigger, but, it seemed, had less stuff in it. In Morrowind, pretty much every corner had a well placed egg mine or tomb tucked away somewhere. Or there was a lovely mudpit or some other terrain feature.
Oblivion...well...you got trees. Lots and lots of trees.
Most of Morrowind's dungeons were smaller too, I think. The tombs were, certainly. Which kind of makes sense, especially when compared to the Aylied 'cities', which were apparently ALL tomb. Some of the Dwarf ruins were pretty big, of course, though.
The one thing I did approve of in Oblivion was the 'surface' levels of dungeons. You could walk around the open ruins of the towers and find things...not much, but it was something.

Speaking of the towers, that's another thing that bugged me.

The Empire can apparently afford to maintain a massive military presence in Morrowind, complete with a large number of forts and a couple cities, plus an outpost all the way in freakin' Solestheim (however you spell that), but has, apparently, allowed EVERY defensive outpost in the heart of the empire to fall into total disrepair and, in some cases, become occupied by bandits?
Seriously?
This is the continent-spanning empire which, although corrupt, is capable of kicking the Dark Elves in Morrowind into submission, thrashing the psychotic cannibal wood elves and has lasted for hundreds of years? The Imperial Legions which took on Morrowind can't deal with a bunch of BANDITS?
(Alright, understandable, sometimes those bandits were wearing Daedric equipment...goddamn leveling.)

Also, to those who were talking about Morrowind with Oblivion graphics, I believe somebody discovered that it was possible to run Morrowind's data files through Oblivion, and they're currently working on a project to get it functional (since all the text and such has to be converted to Oblivion's system).
Google "Morroblivion", I think it was.

[frogbeastegg]

The Empire can apparently afford to maintain a massive military presence in Morrowind, complete with a large number of forts and a couple cities, plus an outpost all the way in freakin' Solestheim (however you spell that), but has, apparently, allowed EVERY defensive outpost in the heart of the empire to fall into total disrepair and, in some cases, become occupied by bandits?

The forts in Morrowind felt practical. They were designed to hold off an assault, and featured most things you would expect to see: living areas, towers, armouries, a courtyard, etc.

The forts in Oblivion never felt like that. The surface areas were a bunch of ruins which didn't look like they would convert into a fort if you rebuilt all of the walls, and the areas below ground were just another set of tunnel dungeons complete with traps and mazes. They weren't forts; they were a combination of a crazy warehouse and a cave.

Don't forget the patrols keeping the roads clear for travellers. A mighty 1 guy on a horse at maybe 3 points in the entire road network.

[TinCow]

I believe Oblivion's map was larger than Morrowind's.. but it never felt so vast.

Oblivion was bigger, but, it seemed, had less stuff in it.

Actually, Oblivion's was smaller. I don't remember the figure I was told, but it's something like 20% smaller. That wasn't what made it seem smaller though. Fallout 3 is in turn about 50% of the size of Oblivion, but seems a lot larger than Oblivion because there are so many unique locations and places to explore. Oblivion's problem was that nearly every dungeon was generic and forgettable. While this was true for much of Morrowind as well, at least Morrowind had those unique dungeons scattered about with unique treasure and non-scaled monsters. The varied terrain had a great impact as well, with the swamps in the west, desert in the north, fertile land in the south, mountains in the center, not to mention all the different architecture. Oblivions simply seemed the same everywhere you went, with very minor exceptions. This is one of the reasons I think the Unique Landscapes mod series is one of the best improvements for Oblivion. It gives an actual sense of size to the game that wasn't present OOB.

[Sheogorath]

The forts in Morrowind felt practical. They were designed to hold off an assault, and featured most things you would expect to see: living areas, towers, armouries, a courtyard, etc.

The forts in Oblivion never felt like that. The surface areas were a bunch of ruins which didn't look like they would convert into a fort if you rebuilt all of the walls, and the areas below ground were just another set of tunnel dungeons complete with traps and mazes. They weren't forts; they were a combination of a crazy warehouse and a cave.

Don't forget the patrols keeping the roads clear for travellers. A mighty 1 guy on a horse at maybe 3 points in the entire road network.

To be fair, the fine men of the Imperial Legion are basically demigods in unmodded Oblivion outside of that emberassing little episode at Kvatch and whenever they're scripted to be on your side :P

But it's like I said in the OP. In Morrowind, buildings were designed to be lived in. In Oblivion, everything but houses is basically a dungeon. The forts and ruins are both nothing but tombs, which is a nice excuse to fill them with zombies and all, but Morrowind pulled that off nicely with buildings that actually were tombs.

Actually, Oblivion's was smaller. I don't remember the figure I was told, but it's something like 20% smaller. That wasn't what made it seem smaller though. Fallout 3 is in turn about 50% of the size of Oblivion, but seems a lot larger than Oblivion because there are so many unique locations and places to explore. Oblivion's problem was that nearly every dungeon was generic and forgettable. While this was true for much of Morrowind as well, at least Morrowind had those unique dungeons scattered about with unique treasure and non-scaled monsters. The varied terrain had a great impact as well, with the swamps in the west, desert in the north, fertile land in the south, mountains in the center, not to mention all the different architecture. Oblivions simply seemed the same everywhere you went, with very minor exceptions. This is one of the reasons I think the Unique Landscapes mod series is one of the best improvements for Oblivion. It gives an actual sense of size to the game that wasn't present OOB.

I understand it works like this:
Morrowind's overall map size is larger, HOWEVER, Oblivion has more actual land, as Morrowind's map is like, %30 water (and, as I recall, basically goes on forever).

Either way, Morrowind FELT bigger. As you said, variety of terrain and culture made Morrowind great, whereas in Oblivion it's basically all the same. Yeah, the towns change architecture, but it either feels same-y or forced, like Bravil.
An entire town of slums? Why would ANYBODY choose to live there when there are nicer towns a few hours walk away? With good roads, no less.
At least Morrowind had the good sense to isolate it's shanty towns, or make them ports.

[TinCow]

I understand it works like this:
Morrowind's overall map size is larger, HOWEVER, Oblivion has more actual land, as Morrowind's map is like, %30 water (and, as I recall, basically goes on forever).

Yeah, that could very well be true, but even the water was fun. Once I figured out that shipwrecks were marked on the paper map that came with the game, I spent a lot of time and money to get equipment/spells sufficient to let me dive on the deeper ones, just to see what was down there. It was great fun getting out to some of the really remote islands as well. I think that only other game I've ever played that made pure exploration so much fun was Ultima Online in the early days when there were very few houses and being able to teleport was rare.

[Sheogorath]

Yeah, that could very well be true, but even the water was fun. Once I figured out that shipwrecks were marked on the paper map that came with the game, I spent a lot of time and money to get equipment/spells sufficient to let me dive on the deeper ones, just to see what was down there. It was great fun getting out to some of the really remote islands as well. I think that only other game I've ever played that made pure exploration so much fun was Ultima Online in the early days when there were very few houses and being able to teleport was rare.

Ah, the joy of finding Mai'q the Liar on his little island :P

[Vladimir]

Ah, the joy of finding Mai'q the Liar on his little island :P

And some great armor on an island in the southwest.

[Decker]

I would slaughter whole towns and use them as stashes for all sorts of things lol...
That was a great game, and exploring never got old..