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Originally Posted by _JustAName_1
/Agree, on both counts. RPGs these days seem to be missing the whole STORY thing, which has made many RPGs classics. From a strict standpoint of gameplay, however (and not considering Arx Fatalis), the Rlder Scrolls series is the closest cousin to UW - They are both designed to play in FP perspective, and have engines that directly interact with your environment (picking up items, using terrain to your advantage, etc.) But yeah, Oblivion's lack of story-telling depth and it's razor-fine shallow main story doomed it to "pretty hack and slash RPG" status.
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It's not so much the story, but the simplification and hand holding in the gameplay. There's no reward or satisfaction since the developers are constantly handing everything to do.
Remember the the early cornerstones of PC RPGs didn't have much in the terms of story. The early Ultimas (I-III) hardly had much story in them, nor did the venerable Wizardry series. The narrative revolution in RPGs didn't really occur until the late eighties and it gained prominence in the 90s when the technology allowed developers to put more into their games to represent their stories.
Even the SSI Goldbox games didn't always have amazing stories, the same goes for the Might and Magic games.
Story is important, but RPGs were never really founded on that, it became more popular with the release of games like Ultima VI, Fallout and Baldur's Gate that emphasized heavy story telling.