User blog comment:Thedoucheinthenorth/A fault with Skyrim/@comment-4057437-20120727015514

Morrowind had light, medium and heavy armor. Oblivion dropped the medium designation, but had some chain armor. Skyrim has just continued the trend.

As for the looks, truely functional armor doesn't look flashy or 'cool'. Historically, decoration was usually on a cloth worn over the armor and on the shield, except  for parade armor worn by high ranking individuals.

If you really want realism, one's vision should be impaired when wearing full face helmets anyway. (As it is, the Dreagonborn can see perfectly well when wearing a Falmer Helmet...how does that work?)

Finally, having to pay more for an item than one can sell it for is just being realistic. Merchants are not charities, they need to make a profit. You might try wearing an enchanted chain and the Guildmaster's Hood, up to 49% better prices! Also, give a begger 1 gold beforehand for the 10 points increase in speechcraft. All four of our characters have over 100K Septims, one has over one and a half million. .