I'm impressed by the passion and depth of knowlege on these forums and so I'm asking this opinion question. I really want to play/experience the game like some of you.My question is about the clothing/armor that those of you really into the game use or don't use.

I have a young(level 10) mage.He is currently wearing a no armor but does have a magical robe(that regens magic fast).I'd really like to play the game the way the veterans play it.Most of the time I play on master level and currently have Lydia as my companion.

My question is...is this NO ARMOR play style the "norm" for many veteran players or just for a small "hard core" group who need this kind of challenge to keep the game interesting for themselves ?

I play on a PC.I use a signifigant number of mods (mainly/but not exclusively focusing on enhanced graphics).

Mages don't wear armour. Go anywhere in the game where you'll find mages, wizards, sorcerers, witches, etc. and you'll see that none of them wear armour.

I am not experienced in Skyrim, but i come think few things, pro and cons

Wearing armor does give permanent armor rating just by wearing them, but you only gain experience bonus if you get hit wearing them. Why you want to get hit? The best way in combat is not getting hit. While you don't want to get hit, there is no purpose on wearing armor and you will not gain experience on wearing armor

Not wearing armor don't give you armor rating, making you are fragile if getting hit but if you manage not to get hit, then there is no problem. And there spells to increase armor rating and ways to negate the cost of casting such spells. Downside is you must cast it and sometime one second in combat is precious

In anyway, if enemy are strong, you wearing armor or not doesn't make any difference, in Skyrim your character might die with just one or two blows from Trolls, bears and any monsters...GIANTS...powerful spell casters...and powerful archers. Really, i see little purpose on wearing armor. Some armors do look cool, but really have little use.

What important is resistance...magic, fire, frost, shock, poison, disease resistance

This.

The only time I've seen mages / warlocks in armor is with the Forsworn. Other than that there are Imperial paladins, spell swords and battlemages who specialise in both melee and magic. Not sure about Telvanni guards in Morrowind as I can't remember off hand.