I think Bethesda, and really all other RPGs could benefit from being basically sandboxes without any real “main quest”.

Make it about me and what I want to be in this fantasy world. Not what lame ass story the writers shat out to meet deadlines.

Lore, not linear stories. World building and evironmental story telling, not a tiny fish bowl with little exploration.

I mean, the main quest is like 10 percent of the game and playtime for most players. The remaining 90 percent is exploring, side quests, meeting interesting people, and obtaining power and fame. All of which happen on account of the player and their own story they want to tell in the dev’s world.

That’s what space sims are though. Not your type of game, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have open flight.