To be brutally honest, you could say that about 99% of the threads here. And the remaining 1% are locked or deleted for being nothing to do with the game.

In fact, someone remind me why I'm here.

I'll second this incredibly astute notion.

The ability to empathetically experience events which we are only observing is a pretty common one. If you watch somebody get punched in the face, you can (or most people can, maybe some people can't) sense with very little effort what the impact would have felt like. My empathetic experience would definitely be different if my character takes an arrow to the shield and staggers to the side or loses his balance, versus if the arrow hits the shield and does nothing but makes a noise.

Yes, but you haven't played the game.

If you complained about this after playing as an archer, or blocking/getting hit by several arrows, then you might have a reasonable stance. As it is, you can't 'feel' that archery is light-weight. You could judge by observing, or see that it appears light-weight.

But until you have your hands on the controller, you don't feel it. And the people who've had their hands on the controller say that they've FELT it. Brutally.

Well, no, I didn't say that I had played the game, or even anything at all about it. I happen to agree with you, if not your presentation of your point - but I also misunderstood your post above. I thought you were saying that the reviewers were wrong to say that they'd felt anything, because in literal terms they had only seen it.

I heard people complaining about this... It didn't even hit his shield...

woah woah, my bad then, guessed i should have said it LOOKS lightweight, of course it'd be impossible for me to know for sure until i actually play the game, just saying i hope archery turns out to be a thoroughly viable route to take and does not end up coming off as a 2nd rate attacking option.

Can't waittttttt for itttttttt.

The mod is Duke Patrick's Combat Archery. It's on tesalliance and it's in the oblivion mods forum top pages usually.

I played the game at PAX let me assure you... Archery is not lightweight. if you pull the bow back like a pu$$y your going to shoot a pu$$y arrow. so dont be a pu$$y and rip that chord back (hold the right trigger down) and let it fly. promise youll be satisfied.

I am not sure if you are saying this or not but if you are saying it is not possible for and an arrow to stagger you on impact you are incorrect. I have been hit in the bare leg (no armor) by a "light weight" 60 pound bow with a BLUNTED arrow (round hard plastic arrow head used for hunting birds). It was a stupid accident that was mostly my fault.

From that experience I would bet you a years salary that if I did the same to you, you would stagger as well!

I am not what I would call an "expert" in physics but I am an expert in medieval combat.

See here:
World wide organization (SCA)
I have been in the Top 1% ranking as King twice and now hold the rank of Duke as well as Knight. (my credentials: http://wiki.caid-commons.org/index.php/Patrick_Levi_Darkwrath )

My book on the physics of Combat: http://www.spookyfx.com/book/tromp.html

(I made the Duke Patrick mods. )

Stagger and knock back effects are not only caused by momentum (relatively slow medieval arrows) or kentic enegry (fast modern bullets).

Pain
Lose of use for a moment of important muscles or tendons.
Pressure points for nerves and physiological weak points.
Balance (the act of walking is a constant cycle of losing balance, a even a small disruption in the cycle can trip you to the ground.)