personally I think that oblivion was better than skyrim... skyrim has cheap quests, and the rest is always the same...
Also the interface sucks and is much more complicated than UO, if you don't read the manual you have to push all the buttons to understand how to do the basics things.
Another problem is the visual style... skyrim is designed to be played in first person. If you switch in third person you have a lot of problems like the target cross misplaced that mess up the whole gameplay...
I think Skyrim has a much much better feel Oblivion, and there are many things they did right in Skyrim they did wrong in Oblivion. Dungeons are better and less repetitive and bland, voice acting is better, I think the skill system is improved, the world has cooler places and creatures, better leveled lists for items and creatures (way better).
On the other hand there are some serious nearly game ruining problems for me. Two huge things: AI is beyond horrible. Someone attacking you? Cross a body of water. They wont follow you if it requires any swimming, so you can just cross a small pond to an island, and shoot arrows or spells all day long, they wont come after you. They may run away but... Or, sneak attack a guy in a fort with an arrow and kill him in one shot, he falls dead at the feet of his comrades. Do they go out and look for his killer or take cover? Nope. They just stand there as if nothing had happened. Foes often run away from you, stand for a second, then run back at you for no reason. Foes often stand there not attacking... on and on.
Secondly stealing is broken. Its so easy you have to go out of your way to GET caught. In oblivion peeps would follow you around the house so you couldn't steal thier things, and if you broke in at night it was quite easy to wake people up and have the guards called on you. Not so in skyrim. I've only had the guards called on me ONCE. And that was after I had ransacked a jarls private quarters which were unguarded.
Interface is horrible I agree. Oblivion was way better. As for quests there are soooo many fetch quests. Every other person wants me to deliver something or find them flawless garnets. The larger quests are fine and enjoyable though I think.
Also no spell maker?! Heresy!
Overall I still think vanilla skyrim is a far more enjoyable experience than vanilla Oblivion. Can't really compare it modded up yet, but Oblivion had some amazing game balance overhaul modes that converted the vanilla game (which I hated) into an amazing experience. I'm sure skyrim will get similar big mods like that.
Im on like level 32, 60ish hours in, and while the luster has defiantly worn off I'm still enjoying it, and having urges to keep trekking around.
/rambling
