All of you share interesting aspects, and while wandering the vast lands, I thought about a couple of things in comparison to Oblivion.
To my mind, the randomization of encounters outside of towns is a huge improvement and while I really liked the schedules Oblivion's people have, I always felt pity once I reached around levels 10-15, because then it was not a given any more that the Skooma-dealing Khajiit reached their destinations. As a sidenote, I used to play Oblivion a lot on PS3 with the GOTY-edition, kind of vanilla compared to the over-modded monster that is installed on my PC, and I found it perfectly viable for the PlayerCharacter, not the free-roaming NPC.

The dragon's advantage over the Oblivion-gates is merely that you can dispose of them faster, even when ghosting the gates in order to close them quickly. My game seems to feel pity with me, because dragons don't spawn on every corner, I'd estimate the time between the encounters to be roughly two hours, which is fine for me.

The cities are very different, and I can't really tell, which one's I like more. Time will tell, I guess... I really hope that the houses I did not enter yet have some kind of secret to them. From what I saw just yet, I'm not going to be disappointed beyond belief. The inhabitants are completely new to me, as are the political struggles dividing even single towns. I have not yet made up my mind which side of the coin shines brighter, though I heard NPCs advertising their opposition to be the true side. Investigations pending, later.

Taking into account that magic isn't really favoured by and suspicious to the Nords, I think it was necessary to be reflected by the abundance of local outlets of a mages guild. The court-magician leads a kind of secluded life doing his thing and doesn't disturb the majority of people, so I - as a mage - have someone I can address, and as an étudiant d'art I kind of understand that I am not always greeted with greatest respect. Though I understand that character-interaction needs a lot more fine-tuning by the developers in order to reflect the improvement we make while progressing with our studies.

All in all, I have to say that I am not disappointed by Skyrim at all. There are many, many locations I still need to enter for the very first time and given the fact that the next installment of the Elder Scrolls will take time to materialize, I am in no hurry. Even the things that feels strange at the moment just take time to be familiarized with.

1. Well It is the premise in Skyrim where mages and the college is pretty much shunned from the mainstream. So not sure about this point.

2. By some degree it's pretty much the same in Oblivion. But yeah in Skyrim it was the predictable Alchemist, General store, blacksmith where in Oblivion especially the Imperial City had different stores for shields, swords, etc. It's a minor thing but it does sort of give more personality to a shop. Otherwise this is very minor.

3-4. Totally agree about these points. For example, I felt Skingrad was more large and populated than Solitude which is a "Capital" of a nation.

I think you've addressed issues with Skyrim but you've addressed them for the wrong reasons.

Mages Guild: The simple lack of progression is the biggest flaw with this guild. I can be an arch mage of the College of Winterhold and get my ass handed to me in a dungeon by a small amount of novice fire mages. That doesn't make any sense to me.

Shops: Theres no reason why shops cannot sell equipment that is not randomized. It increased the players morale when they find something new in a dungeon that you can't find in a shop. It also gives them a reason to save up their money.

Cities: I'm not sure if Bethesda ran out of time or something, but Dawnstar, Falkreath and all the supposed major cities should really have a unique feel to them. The only thing that really defines them is the landscape they're surrounded in.

Population: I actually agree with you on this one. The only thing I can add is that by forcing the player who and how you fully interact with NPC you limit how much the world has to give. Fallout 3's interaction system worked because the world was desolate and people didn't thrive, they survived meaning there wasn't a lot of them. Skyrim is supposed to feel full and it does not.

I can't agree more with the op.

What bothers me the most about the College of Winterhold is the ridiculously short questline. In Oblivion, when you became the Archmage, you actually felt like you deserved that title. In Skyrim, what, Apprentice -> Archmage? No it didn't feel right. Oh and the Companions questline is also very short. I don't know about the other though, haven't finished them.

The only thing I don't agree with in the original post is the fact there's no College representation in every city, as stated before, mages aren't popular in Skyrim, so there shouldn't be.

OP are you kidding?

If you think Oblivion had more population then i suggest you go and replay it! The market in a city is supposed to be the busiest section; in the Imperial City Market District there were about 8 NPCs and this was the capital city.

Skyrims city are far more populated IMO. Not to mention the area outside of the cities i.e. Whiterun where there are loads more people.

Oblivions cities were NOT larger, I keep hearing this everywhere... Come on people, really take a minute to look and compare the two...

And no, the Imperial City and Winterhold don't count as arguments. We all realize the Imperial City is huge, and Winterhold is tiny, neither of those are a good representation of either game's cities.

Well, there is no one city in Skyrim that can match the imperial city is there? whiterun could have been a good choice as a place to have a big city, there should have been at least one large city in my opinion.

Also with regard to your assertion that the cities aren't smaller in Skyrim, perhaps you are technically correct i don't know, but i do know they feel a lot smaller to me, and this poll on these forums shows that a lot of other players feel the same way. ---> http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1290520-do-you-feel-the-cities-are-big-enough/page__fromsearch__1

The imperial city was large, but the rest of the towns were the same damned size, if everyone wants the cities to be bigger in skyrim, why not make a sugestion to the developers to add an option in future DLC's to invest your money in the towns to expand their size and capacity?

All the guilds in skyrim feel quite lack luster compared to Oblivion's

I mean I could get kicked out of guilds before but all of a sudden I can't

1. While I understand where you are coming from on this, Skyrim is a land that is rather adverse to the magical arts. It does make sense that magic-users tend to feel like they don't belong, because to most of the populace they don't.

I would revise this simply to Guilds in general, then I would be in full agreement. Skyrim's Guilds are shameful, their stories are short and badly written, they don't sell the Radiant quests to you at all and try to make you feel like you are a member (they're just there), you can't get kicked out anymore, and their presence is sorely lacking (understandable for the Thieves Guild, but the Companions, for instance, really deserved better than what they got).

I fully expect each and every Guild to receive a serious overhaul at some point when the CK hits the shelves. They desperately need it.

2. Can't really say I agree here. Maybe its just because Skyrim's merchant lists don't stop at Elven now so you visit them more? Oblivion's merchants were completely worthless for anything other than offloading loot since once you hit level 10, everything you found in the world outclassed what you could buy. Skyrim's merchants now constantly keep desirable items in stock, so you visit them more, and notice more easily how the stocks between merchants tend to blend together.

3. I don't think Oblivion's cities are better than Skyrim's, I think they are identical in quality. Neither game has very good cities, to tell the truth, the only difference with Skyrim is the decoration is more sophisticated now.

4. Not really. Skyrim's cities actually feel a bit fuller to me since there ARE more people walking around now (not many, but they are there). Also, in Oblivion you never encountered random travelers on the roads, just Legion patrols and couriers. I've seen many travelers in Skyrim while out for a stroll.