If i remember correctly redguard was one of the last games that could be run under DOS... Sadly i never played it. ( i like every game that involve pirates, i love that age :) )

as far as I understand Redguard didn't exactly involve pirates.
but there were boats in it!
as far as i know Redguard was about the Redguard uprising in the second Era in 864(Redguard are darkskinned humans in The Elder Scrolls) against the rule of the Empire and the corrupt governor Richton.
your character is the redguard Warhero Cyrus who searches for his lost sister.
He finds out his sister was in league with the rebels against the Empire.
The game ends up with you leading the first rebellion at the port city of Stros M'kai which eventually turns into the rebellion of the entire Redguard populace in the province of Hammerfell.

so not exactly pirates... but it could be that you are right
as I have said i never played the full game.

I have seen only pictures of the game... Simply the characters reminded me of pirates ( i think i saw and a cutlass in one of the pics i saw - a classic pirate sword :P ).

true
the game does have a pirate feeling to it
and the boxart does indeed show a cutlass... and the fights are kinda like in pirate games (duels)

Thats why i liked it and wanted to play it.... but sadly i never had :( anyway... :)

I don't think you missed much
from what I saw the dialogues went on and on and on (seriously)

The only TES game I played was Morrowind and since that was supposedly the best game in the series and I did not like that game very much I will not be trying any other. At leats not until a sequal of Morrwind commes out.

Morrowind wasn't the best in the series
according to the fans Daggerfall was the best in the series
but seriously youc an't extrapolate your experience with morrowind over to all the games
we're talking about Arena (1994) while Morrowind was released in... 2002 or something?

anyway the game is amazing
a huge world
changing seasons
day and night
rain, snow, mist

I agree with everything you said about morrowind. But these were not things that I disliked about it. The combat was bad. I tried using the bow and it was completely useless. The mage gains experience far to slowly to be effective unless you take two hours of real time and start practicing. The story is all but non extistent. The world is so huge you can walk for hours on end and not be in the same place twice but the reason you would want to often escapese me. You can wonder into area's you are not supposed to be at your skill level and get cut to ribbons. You unlock quests that you cannot complete because you don't have theskills for it and once you do you have forgotten what it was you needed to do and are forced to go through pages and pages of notes in your journal that are not catagorized. Your armour and weapons degrade over time so you are forced to repair them or replace them. Realistic enough maybe but it'sa game! Where is the fun in that?
I liked Morrowind for a while but after my jaw had once again connected to the rest of my face I got frustrated and left the game. Once I have my new computer I would not be surprised if I started it up again to see what DX9 looks like but not before.

I have never played an archer or mage character so I can't comment on that

the story is VERY big and VERY deep... the only problem is that you need to read the books the people shove into your hands.
the entire story of morrowind is actually brilliant since you are supposedly the reborns prophet and you need to help the 'good' guys defeat an age old 'badguy'
now when you read into the story you learn that there is some evidence the 'good' guys actually killed you in your past life and the 'bad' guy made an outh to your past self to protect an artefact, he wouldn't give it up to the so called good guys that killed you so they started a war against him using you (the reborn prophet) as a tool.
well thats the story in a nutshell... its quite confusing at times.

there are numerous ways to get around quickly (silt strider, boat, magic)
to key locations (less important lcoations are usually close to key locations)

it is true you can wonder into lcoations beyond your level, thats why it is advised to join a faction, they give you equiptment and quests that are fit for your level (and they also provide training in case you are not ready)

Many people complained about the journal system so it got a big overhaul in the expansion Tribunal.
in the case of weapons, fi you carry a hammer around with you theya re easily repaired.

now seriously, I am not talking about morrowind, i'm talking about arena
one is from 1994, the other one from 2002,... reallyg vie it a try
I've been playing it and (besides some tedious dungeons) its immense fun!