Dumbing down the series? Looking for opinions.

[Tirekyll]

So I've been hearing over the years how Oblivion was dumbed down from Morrowind and Skyrim even further. Now I'm hearing that Morrowind was dumbed down from Daggerfall. Could anyone here explain what's meant by these? Thanks in advance.

[Castyles]

Stripping features and adding unecessary features, mostly.

[Zsrai]

Daggerfall was a unique beast, in that it was almost more of a D&D type world to live in where you made your own story and had your own day to day activities. It was completely open, the only real story was the Main Quest with no series of quests or anything for guilds or other factions. Lots of (unfortunately useless) skills that never translated over to other games too.

Morrowind was built more like a "traditional" cRPG in that it has a story to tell you and not a blank canvas that you can write whatever you want on. There were also some other changes, like stripping abilities and skills down, character creation being stripped down, etc. The biggest jump from Daggerfall to Morrowind was the game direction, while the biggest jump between Morrowind and Oblivion (and later, Skyrim) was the game mechanics and how they have been simplified and stripped down.

[Vespertine]

Yeah sure some games were dumbed down. To me, they are still all amazing with what they were built around. Each game does something better than the last. Morrowind has terrible combat. Oblivion did it better, and Skyrim even further. Then again, Morrowind has amazing spells, Oblivion was okay in that area, and Skyrim was terrible. Its give or take a lot of the time. I think its best to go in without outside critics so YOU can enjoy the game you want to play. And not let other's opinions get in the way. Take it from me, they are all very solid games and I could not pick one over the other.

[Innocent]

It has also been an inevitable trend on the video game industry as games became more accessible (cheaper hardware) and more popular. Remember, Daggerfall was released in 1996! Back then, video gaming was still sort of a niche thing, with hardcore players ready to spend hours on complex mechanics and reading 200 pages hardback manuals.

Not saying you can't find these kind of games anymore, you sure can, but the big studio will try to appeal to the masses and therefore dumb their mechanics (and now try to paywall as much as they can, that's the new trend).

[Saelune]

Nah, Morrowind was not dumbed down from Daggerfall. Alot of Daggerfall was semi-randomly generated and just all over the place, and while it did start to form its own identity for TES, it still had alot of trapping of 'Default fantasy'.

Morrowind decided to be very intentional about everything. Where as most enemies in Daggerfall are typical fantasy fair, from Centaurs to Imps, Morrowind has mostly new and unique creatures. Each dungeon is also thoughtfully put together, the world is thoughtfully put together, everything feels intentional and thought out.

Anyone who is saying Morrowind is 'dumbed down from Daggerfall' probably considers actual level design to be 'dumbing down' from the geometric labyrinths of Daggerfall that all looked the same and usually left you getting literally lost.

[vennedia30]

My biggest issue with the franchise is this; Skyrim and to a lesser extent Oblivion are completely player driven worlds. Nothing meaningful happens anywhere without your character. In Daggerfall and Morrowind you were just a nobody who might become somebody if that was what you wanted to do. That sense of simply living in a fantasy world can still be there in Oblivion and Skyrim but those moments are especially fleeting and fragile in Skyrim, you basically need mods to make your own story and be who you want to be. That's a huge downgrade for me.