The real answer is probably that I played Morrowind first.
Alternatively, Morrowind was just more unique. It had tons of weird shit like mushroom trees. You would find completely unique quests and items just by wandering through the world. It gated you from content if your path took you a specific way. Like, if you join the thieves guild and do a mission to steal from another guild, you can't join that other guild. They weren't afraid of players "breaking" the intended path, so you can craft bonkers spells that let you jump across the map or fly.
I also think not having voice acting allowed them toake conversations more interesting. You could really dig into the world via NPCs.
Just a very unique game that doesn't really have mass market appeal.
Oblivion was still really good, but it was simpler. There was less meat to it. This also meant it was more accessible, which is a good thing for a lot of people. Oblivion has a lot of really fun questlines. Skyrim is a lot like if Oblivion had a better built world, but with worse questlines.
Morrowind has the best lore building out of the three later games. It was really rewarding to piece the history together while the main quest tied itself slowly to it. Both the vivec Palace thing and the final heart chamber thing are some of my favourite moments in elder scrolls because of how rewarding they felt after I read every book in the game I could find to just learn more.
The real answer is probably that I played Morrowind first.
Alternatively, Morrowind was just more unique. It had tons of weird shit like mushroom trees. You would find completely unique quests and items just by wandering through the world. It gated you from content if your path took you a specific way. Like, if you join the thieves guild and do a mission to steal from another guild, you can't join that other guild. They weren't afraid of players "breaking" the intended path, so you can craft bonkers spells that let you jump across the map or fly.
I also think not having voice acting allowed them toake conversations more interesting. You could really dig into the world via NPCs.
Just a very unique game that doesn't really have mass market appeal.
Oblivion was still really good, but it was simpler. There was less meat to it. This also meant it was more accessible, which is a good thing for a lot of people. Oblivion has a lot of really fun questlines. Skyrim is a lot like if Oblivion had a better built world, but with worse questlines.
Morrowind has the best lore building out of the three later games. It was really rewarding to piece the history together while the main quest tied itself slowly to it. Both the vivec Palace thing and the final heart chamber thing are some of my favourite moments in elder scrolls because of how rewarding they felt after I read every book in the game I could find to just learn more.