The game sure seems to be getting quite a bit of hate recently. I'm on my 5th play through and still going strong. I understand that the game has it's many flaws, and have made a few topics about them myself. I just wanted to say, though, that I still truly love playing this game. Perhaps different people play the game in different ways, but for me the only way is role playing. If not in the mind set of my character, I could easily tire of the game. The "path to the top" is boring and repetitive, on ANY game.

EDIT: HELL YAH!! http://www.ihighfive.com/ That's for my fellow RP'ers.

I have had several role-plays already and I love the one I am in now. In order to keep things fresh I do set some rules.

1) Never add perks to any more than one crafting skill, usually Smithing for Warriors, Alchemy for Rogues and Enchantment for Mages. Otherwise the game just seems to get unbalanced real fast and following this rule has helped tremendously. It also makes more sense that someone can not be an expert in everything.

2) Never do more than 2 or 3 major quest lines. Keeping the character in the factions that they would be naturally good at again just makes a lot more sense and to me makes a more focused and enjoyable game.


So far I have played:

Nord Warrior. Sword and Shield. Joined Stormcloaks and did MQ.

Imperial Warrior. Dual Weapons. Joined Empire and Companions.

Khajiit Rogue. Archer. Joined Thieves guild.

Orc Warrior (current). Two-handed. Did all Orc Stronghold quests. May join Blades.

Future:

Breton Mage. Pure mage. Join mages guild and bards college.

Dumner Rogue. Archer/dagger. Join DB and do all Daedric quests.

In every TES game I tend to follow the same path. I begin the game with a Dark Elf 'Kamen', who experiences everything possible and ends with the main questline. He's kind of my stand-in for universe continuity...
After that I throw down with a bunch of whim characters, such as dedicated Assassins or Paladins.

I am still on my first playthrough as a Nord two handed warrior. Of course I am working 2 jobs so I am only getting in about 10 hours a week in gaming time

But in some ways that makes me better off than others IMO. I have seen threads where people put 200 hours into this game in 4 weeks and had done and seen everything. I kind of felt sorry for them, but hey if they have fun playing that way so be it. I plan on taking my time and playing this game for a while though.

5 ha i have 7 though i've yet to finish the main quest and only have 3 at 40+ yea i realy need to just settle down and chose a primary char

Don't make me tell you about my "Farmer" class. He's afraid of dragons.

Speaking of which, has anyone done one of those "mundane character runs"? I remember in Oblivion there was a travelog from a very peasant NPC-like character, and it was hilarious.

I'm doing something similar. My level 22 Nord Warrior is doing only the main quest and the Stormcloaks. Perks are being limited to three trees: Two-handed, Light Armor and Smithing (smithing seems appropriate for my character). She equips only those weapons, armor and jewelry that she makes herself (she just yesterday upgraded out of the Hide Armor she's been wearing the entire game). She buys nothing from vendors.

We reject misc quests that don't "feel right." We travel on foot or take carriages about 95% of the time. So far it's been a very fun game. I'm really enjoying this character.

Totally agree.

I'm in my 4th playthrough but the first two didn't last long because I was playing DiD.

First character still. No thieves', DB or companions, no wrecking ships or stealing ale, no murders except Thalmor (natch), if I ever get bored of this one, healer/alchemist/virtual saint, there's a whole underworld waiting. Most importantly though, to get the best, avoid map fast travel. See the wilderness.