I'm afraid that Skyrim will be a great mechanical leap forward for the series, but will remain too much like Oblivion in terms of story, characters, organisations, world, and conflict. They've said they're trying to bring more of the less-typical-fantasy of something like Morrowind into Skyrim, but I was so immensely bored by most of Oblivion compared to Morrowind that I remain worried. I want a game with a setting with the social depth of Morrowind with that same sort of huge web of factions, splinter factions, and compelling and unique characters all interwoven with an immense and fascinating backstory with multiple large fairly independent strands (not one huge but simple monolithic backstory that informs the entire setting and story). I want to see something as interesting as the exploration of religious and political imperialism in Morrowind, which they did a great job of building into almost every aspect of the game.
