Every time I restart, it's because I forget that the thrill of melee kill-cams gets old, quickly. I'm having chronic restartitus relapse here.

Since I got Skyrim this time last year, being a Morrowind -> Oblivion veteran (I'm not old enough for everything before then) I've notched up 467 hours, and I've never gotten more than half way through the main quest. You see, from the start it was all about playing a Dunmer mage, it always has been. After about 420 hours of that, and some Nightblade too, I finally started playing around with some Nord melee types, of all kinds, a playstyle I've never really stuck with throughout the whole series. Yes, these big Nord lads sure are handsome, and yes, the melee kill-cams are immensely satisfying, but time I get to level 20+ having only completed a handfull of quests I bore myself into starting over. Been about 5 warrior Nords now. I've just rolled a new Dunmer tonight, and my spell fingers are itchy...

I know this will probably be contentious, but I long for the old class system. It gave a sense of boundary, and purpose, helped one to roleplay and get into and commit to a character. Skyrim is great, but I think the character-class issue was a misfire. It dosn't really work as well as it should; I think a little bit of a 'class' system which compliments how things work now would be of benefit to the game.

But hey, at least I'm not relapsing into tobacco, an endeavour in which this game has proven invaluable.

So you find it hard to stop playing Skyrim?

I've invested so many hours of my life into this thing. I'm not stopping until I finish it.

I disagree, in all honesty.

The classless system has let all my characters flow naturally in their development.

It means if you change your mind about something, you don't have to start all over.

He finds it hard to stop making new characters because without a defining class system he constantly restarts is what I got from this lol

The problem with letting your 'characters flow naturally' is that if the skill usage is too broad, you level up absurdly fast, and it's really immersion breaking, for me. Nightblade-esque builds are the ideal example, I got up to level 23 with one not even doing a proper side-quest, only some miscellaneous tasks as I explored the rift a little at the very start of the game.

The 'old' class system had a better, more restrained and balanced way of levelling. My characters in this game feel somehow more 'throwaway' as a result, if you understand me.

I used to use mods when I played Morrowind and Oblivion to get rid of the whole "class" thing. Outmoded, 70's-era Dungeons-and-Dragons-style "classes" are not roleplaying to me. So vanilla Skyrim is a good fit for me in that regard. It plays a lot like Morrowind and Oblivion with my mods.

Which "old" system? I find this leveling system much better than the Oblivion leveling system, but I've never played Morrowind.

The classic TES 'system', I guess.

There's just something about the pacing of character development in this game I find a little off-putting. It was different before, you really had to work for your levels.

Not really, leveling was easy in oblivion. The pacing is about the same to me.

In the past few years I played Oblivion and have quit smoking, but I have no idea what you are talking about. How does the Skyrim leveling system make your character "throw away"? There is no way I would play this game if it were anything like quitting smoking.

The Oblivion leveling system got many complaints too. I played OOO with a mod that halved the leveling speed. Many others chose mods that changed it completely. Unless you are on a console, there seem to be leveling mads for Skyrim too.

I am around level 27, and I find the leveling system just different than Oblivion. I think it is supposed to be faster, since you only get 1 perk per level. You can't compare it to Oblivion.

I definitely agree with you here.

In Skyrim, I feel like I've barely started seeing the world, and then all of a sudden, I start to see higher-level armor popping up everywhere. Leveling up occurs much too soon.
I actually preferred Oblivion and Morrowind, because if you decided to use a whole bunch of different skills, then you wouldn't necessarily be level 21 in a few hours. It all depended on what you chose as your Major and Minors.

Now, I feel like if I wanna play any form of hybrid characters, I'd better be prepared to hit the high levels early.

I like this new system. I hate the restrictions on mage characters with armor. I always wanted a lightly armored mage running through the battle field, causing chaos and destroying armies. But in other games... I have to stand back and just do range damage. I hate it

Dude, if it becomes a chore to play skyrim, don't finish