After looking into it further, I still don't really know if Oblivion would work better as a multiplayer game or as the regular Role Playing Game (RPG) it is now. If it were to become a Massively Multiplayer Online game, or MMO, there are some obvious pros and cons.
For starters, having Oblivion become an MMO would allow for you to play online with your friends whenever and wherever. Issues with weather, driving, and time would no longer stop you from playing your favorite video game with your friends. If it were an MMO, then you could play together with your friends as a team whenever. As one gamer said online, he and his friends are "always making each other laugh during D&D night, so I wanted to do it virtually" (The Nexus Forums). A number of Oblivion-users agreed that if the numbers were limited to small groups in one world online, then it would be much more manageable. "Small scale co-op multiplayer could work in a game like Oblivion, and it would probably help keep me on track with my quests too," one user said. "I get so easily sidetracked in this game, having a friend or two there to keep me on track would be handy!" (Steam). Just the image of teamwork in a game with such well set up tasks and goals is enough to get gamers thinking about the possibilities. "Just imagine a 40 man raid (wow reference) storming into and oblivion gate," (GameFAQs) one fan said.
But then again, these very same tasks and quests could be ruined by too many people roaming around at once, each with a human brain driving it instead of a computer's. As one user began to explain: "[Oblivion is] all about roughing it, living off the land, and making a reputation for yourself with the local population. I don't think any of these aspects would be reflected well with multiplayer" (Steam). The individualized focus of the game would lose a great deal of its weight and importance once the player is able to rely on others to move along and figure out how things work. Just look at my first run in with civilization. I picked items up in stores, not realizing that it would qualify as me "stealing," despite placing the items back down in a matter of seconds. If I were to play in a multiplayer mode, I could easily watch someone else make this mistake and avoid doing it myself, or just have a friend quickly tell me before I even get three steps into the city. Then there's the whole problem of playing with others who may or may not be on the same experience level as you. "It could get annoying for people who play legit, and people like me, who can't be killed by Mehrunes" (GameFAQs), explains one gamer.
So it's safe to say while people can find reasons to love Oblivion as an MMO, it still would work best as how it was created: an in depth RPG. One fan even offered the idea of a spin-off. Very little would be considered," he said, "but making it an official TES game might tick off the current fanbase (look at what happened with Final Fantasy XI)" (GameFAQs). Which is a very good example indeed. In the end, Oblivion is not about multiplayer and most likely should not be. "It is supposed to be an open ended, open world, highly non-linear, single player game series," says one fan, and he seemed to have nailed it on the head. "I'd like to see this in an Oblivion-esque game, but not in Oblivion itself. Something to dream about in the next game maybe... Which btw, when the hell is that?" (Steam).
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