User blog comment:Draevan13/Why the Elder Scrolls ISN'T being dumbed down...much./@comment-6573099-20130409030851

While I am with the crowd that feels the elder scrolls series is headed down the road to casual town, I welcome many of the changes brought forth. Crafting systems inplimented in skyrim (ex. smithing and cooking) are fun and can have you actually hunting for ingrediants to prepare food, radiant story gives a more unique feel to the game as well. But the fact that there is a casualization is still present. For one, the removal of the class system, I system which pains me to see gone, is one of the most glaring issues in my mind. why is it that I can play as a Nord, but not an all out barbarian nord given stat boosts off the bat through class selection or creation. Infact, Skyrim seems to point the player the way of "the one class to rule them all", by this I mean the Dragonborn is a basic demigod by the end of leveling, able to kill off an entire town in one flick of the wrist.

And another thing that to be honest has me more than slightly perturbed is the addition of perk based leveling. What did the oblivion leveling system do to anger the game designer?!?!? While that system allows you to level up your skill to gain bonuses allowing for different attacks or abilities (journeyman level unarmed, for example, gives you the ability to damage ghosts) that helped in combat and made the game easier, but not too easy. In skyrim, that all flies out the window by level 40 of any skill, when hundreds of draugr fall before you blade of bow in mere seconds.

But worst of all, is the lack of player choice. Let's set up a scenerio shall we? you, an orc, have just finished cleaving off the arms of Dwarven centurion and have come to the treasure room. upon opening the chest in the center of the room, you find a strange crystal thing. after exiting the chest menu, a loud voice begins to scream at you about how you have a new mission, go do it. This takes you to a dungeon, at the end of which you get a prize, a sword that is leveled to you level. This is all forced on the player, and while I am sure some random internet user may say "just avoid them bro", I say no. If I do not wish to do a quest, I do not want to recieve it. In oblivion, all that you needed to do was go to the shrine of a Daedric prince or talk to people for find rumors that pointed you in the right direction, but did not start the quest for you. This allowed the player to feel less rushed and more immersed in the environment.

This, combined with the ever shrinking pool of skills, clothing sets, quests, factions, and even just entertaining activities in game is why I feel the series is headed the way of "casualization", and needs to hit on the breaks, turn around, and return to the times where you could be a wereboar, trek a map the size of great britain and level without fear of becoming [insert name] The all powerful battlemage thief assasin merchant bard thane of Whiterun.