zadokAllen
Sentinel
I would say that similar to why I enjoy any of the Elder Scrolls games and Fallout 3, I really enjoy the exploration and the overall atmosphere of the game world. I always feel compelled to simply explore the world in Elder Scrolls games; it becomes my "main quest" in a way, and it satisfies my desire to take a seemingly endless adventure in a foreign world. Random walks throughout the map just seem to yield new adventures and more sights to see. There's just something about randomly exploring the Elder Scrolls universe that captivates me more than exploration typically does in other open world games.
I can see why the lack of a good story would be off-putting, but the Elder Scrolls is one of the few series of games where I don't need a story to feel like my character is on an epic adventure; the open-ended nature of the game gives a player the freedom to almost create their character's own story. In a way, the random experiences created by exploration become a unique story by itself - if you use some imagination - and because of the open-ended nature of the game, no two "stories" will be the same. There is simply so much to do and see outside of the main storyline that a player could invest 100 hours into an Elder Scrolls game without ever touching the main story and still feel like they were part of an epic journey (if the sandbox experience and lack of direction appeals to them).
Couldn`t put it better. I`d just sticky this whole post, for the endless future arguments