User blog comment:Johnsmith2962/Skyrim: Race change?/@comment-4588723-20120719175628

I think the phrase "You can do that with console commands" should be generally banned from discussions of new ideas for gameplay. We all know that if PC gamers have a mind to it, they can spam their copy of Skyrim with neon green frost dragons wearing rainbow wigs and spewing health potions instead of ice, or any other whimsical constructs that generally defeat the purpose of the game as it was designed. That's all very well and I'm sure we're very happy for you, but if someone is posting on the wiki an "It'd be nice if I could..." type of comment, it generally stands to reason that they are playing on one of the consoles and therefore the PC commands and mods are of absolutely no use to them. I apologize for the diatribe, it's just that the PC elitists who go around trolling discussions with "why don't you just mod that into your game" get on my nerves.

Anyway...as for the changing of race in-game, I have to agree with @AveryWood, it doesn't really make sense. The whole point of playing an RPG is that you make choices about your character's identity and attributes, and then you see how those choices play out as you run into more and more difficult challenges. Changing the race or gender of your character would undermine the concept of character creation. The cool thing about races in TES games is that it helps you establish multiple layers of identity for your character, from the ethnic name you choose down to their specific skill bonuses, but at the same time you are free to do whatever you please with them once you escape whatever confinement you're in at the moment (most Bethesda player characters are created by way of a get-out-of-jail-through-random-inconceivable-and-possibly-supernatural-occurrence routine). If you want to be an orc who summons daedra in combat and picks mountain flowers to make potions from, then knock yourself out, but you were born an orc, and you'll just have to deal with that. The really nice part about gaming is, in an alternate version of the Tamrielic universe, you can be another completely different Dragonborn (in the case of Skyrim) with a totally different approach, but every character is the product of your choices for him/her...kinda like real life, but you can reload saves.