@cy @foolishowl my main thing was usually not a game component but a narrative one. Like, in Oblivion and Skyrim you were expected to become master of all of the guilds. In morrowind, to be in charge of the fighters guild you had to kill thieves guild questgivers. You could only join one Great House. There were several religions and you couldnt advance in all of those either even if you somehow found the quests for any of them.

In that sense it was the difference between a sandbox and a railroad and I spent most of my time inside Oblivion gates thinking "this is a bullshit railroad based on formulaic design choices and it feels lazy"