User blog comment:Apples822/You can play Skyrim till the cows freeze over.../@comment-4493694-20111110003128/@comment-3076045-20111110004004

Oblivion is the 4th in the series. And in answer to your question, Shrxfn68: Not really. You may miss some of the backstory (for instance, you won't understand exactly why the empire has been in ruins for the past few hundred years) but they design these games to be essentially stand-alone games. Whilst I very highly recommend playing at least Morrowind and Oblivion at some point, no, it is not strictly necessary to understand 90% of what is going on in the world.