The wanting an open world that guides you is exactly why I don't like Bethesda games. I played Oblivion way back in the day, I played for like 15 or 20 hours, and once I got out of the prison. Never touched the main story. I competed in this tournament in this big city, I did all this stuff, and just was feeling like, I shouldn't be able to do this stuff yet. The tipping point for me was going into an oblivion portal, I hadn't gotten to any point in the game that actually mentioned them or what they were, and while it was cool being in this hell scape type place with these cool looking enemies, I was like, I'm still technically at the beginning of the game. I should be getting massacred right now, and it just made me not want to play it anymore.