Thats still 15 minutes more than a Wood elf.

All I know is that redguard is still awesome.

There are appearance differences, there are racial power, there are racial initial skill, they look quite different to me. And they keep the race quite balance without a huge racial advantages on particular build, thats is nice also. Why not an Orc Mage? Why not a wood elf warrior? Maybe a bit hard at start but okay in later game, that I think is quite nice.

So..... just like Oblivion, then? (Sure, there were stat & skill differences at the beginning. But level up enough times, and you're the same as everyone else, except for looks and racials. Many of which were either passive resistances or once/day abilities. If anything, with the perk system, high level characters in Skyrim are less alike/"do anything" than high level Oblivion characters.)

This is the problem when you remove stats.

You cant build a character focused on strength or agility or make a lucky character etc

You cant compensate for a physically weaker race or character by making them more agile.

Everybody starts and continues through the game being just as strong and just as intelligent as each other.

Character differentiation and individuality suffered when they removed that in favour of perks and no amount of starting bonuses can change that i'm afraid.

This.

In Daggerfall to Oblivion the only difference was, skill bonus, racial abilities and attribute bonuses.
In Skyrim attributes are removed. No other change. Personally I found almost all racial powers useless.

A once a day power will not be used as you either has used it or want to save it to later or you really don't know how to use it. Add that most has effects spells does better and it's something who is only useful in the first 5 levels anyway, the wood elf beast master is an good example.

I like the night eye in Skyrim, it's useful then looking in dark places, yes as dungeons are pretty light it's mostly used for sniping or looking for loot.

You're wrong and you know it. There are differences.

Though in Oblivion the initial stat differences were meaningless in the long run. The racial advantages and disadvantages were the ones that mattered.

In Skyrim only the racial ability matters, and since i play with a darker nights mod, khajiit, always, it is

no one said oblivion, or any other TES game, was right. all the TES games are horrible on this point, a dunmer doesnt even insult my argonian unless the dunmer happens to be a bandit (why are bandits the only ones who can see race?) and, in skyrim, which should be better by now, an argonian is treated the exact same as an argonian and the dunmer still cannot seem to understand i am their racial enemy and should be treated as such (hell we even drove them out of their lovely little wasteland yet they still dont do anything). the races have always been the exact same thign with a different skin and an ability that will be worthelss in a few minutes of game time (skyrim actually made this better by making the orcs have a hard to recreate ablility though)

I agree that racial differences should be more accentuated in terms of how others interact with you.

I feel like your choice of race definitely affects gameplay, but it always felt more natural to live in a world where people judged you for your race.

You are... silly.


OT:
I wouldn't call them same, but I do think that they are poorly executed.
I also find their powers to be really annoying.
Concept of being able to use a skill once a day is really annoying and there are only few skills which should stick to it (Avoid Death perk is a good example).

Let's take a look at Ancestor's Wrath, a Dunmer greater power, for a moment.
It would be much better if that skill was a toggle skill without duration, but while active it would slow down MP regeneration by 50-100% (numbers are matter of discussion).
Also, starting damage of the skill could be 5 and could get increased by 1 for each 10 levels with the cap of 10 fire damage.
This would not only make it more practical, but it will also make it more unique (now it's just a crappy version of Flame Cloak) and look like an actual ability someone was born with.

Note that this is just an example from top of my head.

+1 to exclusive perk(s) for every race.

Thank you.

I like the different racial powers and stuff but really, making them too different is a pain. If I want to play a certain class, I should be able to play whatever race I want, if one class is indisputably better at that task, I'll feel like I have to be that race if I want to excel in that skill.

As it is, with a little effort anyone can be anything. Maybe that is silly but still, if I want a High Elf barbarian or an Orcish wizard I'd like to be able to without being gimped.

I still don't get why they took out the gender differences that were in Oblivion and Morrowind. It's not sixist or anything.

Indeed, races could have had awesome differences in playstyle, but Bethesda stopped taking risks a long time ago.

Races need "soft" limitations: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1359692-skyrim-soft-limitation/

Because currently, racial differences are pretty much only cosmetic.

Don't you have a disadvantage against Fire if you don't roll a Dunmer? Or Cold if you're not a Nord? So everyone should have Fire and Frost Resistance?

Really so the 25% magic resistance from a breton does nothing past level 15? or when fighting an ancient dragon in melee hissskin does nothing. Just because you forget to use your racial abilities doesn't mean they're useless. You could tell the difference by height. The Altmer is going to run faster then the Breton.

The Elderscrolls has been a classless system sense Daggerfall I think. You can be a mage/warror/thief or some combination of the three. Why should they start putting restrictions on characters based on race when the skill system is free? The point of the elderscrolls is to have the freedom in creating and building your character.

Your argument falls apart at the bolded part.

And Histskin is awesome... for 60 seconds... once a day. Hope you don't fight two Ancient Dragons in one day.

You don't need to force a class system to have worthwhile racial differences.

Whats the point of giving the races bonus in skills if any other race can achieve it?

Simple logic.

Skyrim character creation feels much like Dragon Age II.

With the racial differences as weak as they are, we might as all well just be playing as Hawke and then select our archetype builds.

Ok, but you still have abilities that are somewhat useful, I don't know if how useful the High elf abilites are for a warrior, or the orc abilities are for a mage etc.

Orc's Berserk is useful for 60 seconds... once a day. That's a terribly pathetic difference.