I'm not at all opposed to the principle of an Elder Scrolls MMO, but I really, really don't want a number-crunch fest, in which the ultimate objective is to get to level x or reach armour rating y.

The problem is, this stat obsession is pretty much central to every MMO I've ever experienced. Any ideas on how they might work around it?

Gimmicks xD

Like ultima Online, no levels, only level skills for combat and crafting and your build with an hard skill cap in a true sansbox ffa enviroment.

Completely agree, now that would be intresting.

I'm not an expert, but I think one way to diminish this is to have more specialized items. This doesn't diminish the importance of stats, but it makes it impossible to aim for a "perfect" build and at the same time you're giving players the ability to more finely tune their character.

Having a wide variety of items and a wide variety of levels is prohibitive, but what if some sort of item improvement system was implemented? Tie it to crafting and instead of waiting for the Fiery Sword of Death to drop and then ten levels later going for the Deathly Sword of Combustion you search for things that let you improve "low level" items.

Done right I think the character of equipment will stand out more than their raw power. Of course balancing something this complex would be far more difficult.

Never played it, but that sounds reasonable.

I agree completely... Oh well, who's to say, it's early days. I'm withholding judgement.