Some claim Wizardry has been the only influence on open RPGs, but forget to credit the M&M series. Huge world, lots of sidequests, lots of combat. Doesn't that formula sound familiar? The entire Elder Scrolls series, the Gothic series, Two Worlds and so on and so forth.
Worth noting, only parts of the series was turnbased, later on you got to choose between combat type. MM6 predates Baldurs Gate with this feature. Even though I suspect the M&M series originally got influenced by Wizardry, I still think the series evolved into something more, and helped influence others later on. M&M6 especially was extremely solid at the time, and one of the best of its kind.
I can fully respect your opinion up to this point, Maylander, even though my opinion is somewhat different because I feel that MM6 and 7 marked the
end of an era rather than influencing anything
new that came
after them. Back in the days of MM6 and 7, first person party-based RPGs of M&M's, Wizardry's or Realms of Arkania's type were going out of fashion almost over night as games like Diablo, Nox, Fallout and BG (plus all the other Infinity engine spin-offs) were taking their place. That's how I remember it anyway (including quite passionate discussions on forums on the subject of 3D first/third person vs isometric
).
With real-time combat, a living world, tons of NPCs and so on and so forth, it's probably the first game to feel similar to Oblivion. Only difference is, in M&M6 you had loads and loads of memorable dungeons (vital to a loot and combat oriented game like this), instead of the mindnumbingly boring ones in Oblivion.
Now this is where I have to wonder about your memory a little bit. Real time combat? Yes, sure, you could plough through the easy areas (like later in the game when the beginner areas respawned) like a mad man w/o pausing but the usual, regular type of play was definitely to enter turn-based mode for most fights to have more control over the battles and to increase the chances of winning. But remember that MM didn't have a simple real-time with pause system. The rounds/turns were always executed and calculated even in "real-time" mode. It's just that the game didn't auto-stop/pause after each party member's or enemy's turn in "real-time" mode. The combat system was actually turn-based all the way. Real-time mode was in reality just an accelerated, fast-forward sort of turn-based mode.
Well, and how does MM6 feel similar to Oblivion or how is/was it the first game to feel similar to Oblivion? I mean there was Daggerfall at the time and even though Daggerfall is vastly different from Oblivion, it has (logically since it's from the same developer and set in the same universe) almost infinitely more similarity with Oblivion than MM6.
Just about the only thing that MM6 and Oblivion have in common is the first person perspective. The combat system in M&M 6 is totally different, the skill system is much more complex and offers a lot more choices than the system in Oblivion and there is no leveling by use in MM6 either IIRC but it is all just skillpoint based. Also, it is party-based instead of single character, it has maps (pretty big ones but still maps) instead of an open, free-roaming world, ... well, the differences go on and on.
Seriously, where are the similarities in your opinion? Please do not say "Huge world, lots of sidequests, lots of combat" as you did at the beginning of your post because that is valid for 99.8% of all CRPGs
.
) but -fine- to each their own 