Starfield's main quest is hard to quantify. It's very true to the BGS formula, but it actually has choices with consequences and the writing touches on some deeper aspects of humanity and how we can evolve.

I have felt that way for a long time. But more than just because of Bethesda's writing (in)ability. An open world game is best served by embracing its greatest strength: the open world. A main quest is just a set of rails to force the characters along a predetermined path. Instead I believe it is better to abandon that, and lean into the fact that the players can and will want to go all over the place, and do all sorts of things, and will gladly ignore any main quest you try to foist off on them.

Quests in and of themselves are not bad of course. On the contrary, they are stories, and a story can give our gameplay meaning. It makes things more interesting. So having quests in an open world is still good. They can give us little stories that we can experience in every part of the world that we travel. I am all for faction quests, and local quests, they bring flavor to every region.

@SubRosa - I agree with you completely. But... it seems there are too many players out there who absolutely need a Main Quest. I'm saying this from my experience with TWMP Skyrim Alive. Release 2 had 70 quests but they were all side quests and faction quests and people complained that the mod had no quests. (Apparently 70 = 0 in the absence of a MQ.) So in release 3 I introduced a Main Quest adding another 50 quests or so, but "unfortunately" the MQ is not straightforward, you are required to "go away and do stuff, Agent, because, umm, I can't use a green one like yourself - what was the Emperor thinking, sending me such complete nincompoops, I'll never know". So I now get complaints that the MQ isn't straightforward enough... and that people are FORCED to do side quests!!

Well that’s how Morrowind did it and I thought Morrowind had the best story pacing of all of the BGS games I’ve played. I loved how Caius would tell you to go and “gain some experience” periodically before sending you out on the next leg of the main quest.

That's what gave me the idea. I loved it too. But I don't tell them to go and do stuff... I figured they are sufficiently smart to realise that if the MQ is stuck or too difficult, then may be they need to go off and start talking to people... sheesh...

I believe what Bethesda were trying to do with their main quests was just to provide a trail around the map that took you everywhere important. That way you could find the side quests for yourself, or not, if you just wanted to "beat the game".

Morrowind's was a bit more inclusive of the faction quests. You had branches that depended on what house you joined, and the guild quests were more directly hooked into the MQ. Having faction incompatibilties was another quirk, presumably an attempt to encourage replay taking a different line.

Oblivion dropped the idea of joining one faction locking out another, and one player character could do it all. Some prefer that, others prefer the MW way. You could do the MQ without joining anything, even the Blades. And Clark could just report on someone else doing it.

I've always felt the stark criticisms of Bethesda's writing were overblown. That's not to say that they're amazing or that they're shining examples that other writers should look to or they don't have their issues, of course. But they're decent enough or even pretty solid. I still wouldn't put Oblivion's or Skyrim's at the same level as Morrowind's (even though Morrowind's doesn't get critiqued as much as it could). Hell, arguably TESA: Redguard's main story is the best in the franchise, even more than Morrowind's.

But it's also hard to write a compelling main story in a game where the philosophy is "go and do whatever you want," especially if that main story has world-ending stakes to it. And I don't think Morrowind is an exception to that. The stakes just don't become apparent until much later in the story. Really, the only mainline TES game that doesn't fit this mold is Daggerfall. The stakes are much more localized and focused on political intrigue rather than an existential crisis. Which is still really cool, btw. And world-ending threats get tiresome after a while (as is the case in ESO).

At this point, though, I don't think TESVI can go a different route given the buildup from Skyrim and arguably the previous games, too. Which is fine, as long as it is done well.

https://old.reddit.com/r/ElderScrolls/comme...ref_source=link

I liked Morrowind’s because it gave you the *illusion* that you could ignore it. Once you reported in to Caius and he told you to go get some experience, you could just never return. Heck, if your character was resentful about having been locked up in the first place, or just has a generally anti-authoritarian attitude, you could ditch the package you get from Sellus Gravius in the ocean and never think about it again. You could technically do this in Oblivion but every time you open your clothing inventory or got too near Kvatch, you’d be reminded about the world ending event that’s just not going to fix itself.

I guess what I would like to see most in a BGS game is a “career mode”, of sorts, that recognizes that not all characters have to be heroes of prophecy, and allows you to do side content without ever bumping up against the main quest. Say maybe you do a mundane job for a character that is tied to the main quest and they recognize some potential in you and then sends you on to the next character in the chain.