Board Thread:Morrowind/@comment-65.13.179.156-20130521023026/@comment-7153552-20130620165128

That's not 100% accurate about Skyrim. They spent a lot more time on fleshing out the physical world and the AI of the NPCs so they felt more alive (eating, drinking, sleeping, shutting down shop, having random conversations, reactions to the player). Granted there was some of that in Oblivion, but they wanted it to go further in Skyrim, so they enhanced the AI, and for enemy NPCs as well. Also, they were pulling four games together to make a prophecy fullfillment for one. I'm not saying I wouldn't like to have had more in depth aspects of Skyrim, I'm just saying there was more going on that what you're saying.

That being said, Morrowind had the best basic environment and stories, but it also didn't have to be coded and rendered the way that the following games did.