What do you prefer?

Do you keep using equipment that is aesthetically pleasing or try and get something which does the most damage/protection

Personally, I use steel and fur equipment just because it looks more authentic. I can't imagine someone asking around Riverwood in full Daedric.

EDIT: Xalxitz mentioned Immersion vs In-game stats. This is a much better way of saying it lol.

i like elven because it reminds me of LOTR

Because I role play, I keep a set of clothing for day-to-day in town stuff and only use my armor when I go questing. For battle, I want the best stats possible. For non-battle situations, I want aesthetics.

I play on different difficulties on different characters on my main RP character i roll easy because i want to use the stuff that LOOKS the best and I want to be OP. And on my Bosmer mage i roll master because i'm a badass.
EDIT: I like to wear robes and stuff for traveling (you know traveling light) and normal clothes in the towns, I used fine clothes during the burning of king olaf, and then when i'm gonna fight I use epic awesome badass armour.

Istick with the stuff that fits my rp, and the top of the line gear never fits my rp.

I tend to take the looks....

I love the thieves guild armor.. they did an amazing job on it. I also like the thief/Linwe's armor. I usually sport the Guild Master's armor, even if I find something better.. you can use it the whole game.

Just like with heavy armor, I wear the Ancient Nord Armor.

Always aesthetic, thought I wish the two weren't mutually exclusive (though they are for the most part). I use scale, hide, fur, iron, and steel. I'm not a fan of the overly ornate armor. Same with weapons. I wish there were some nice looking weapons that had great stats. I use skyforge steel throughout the game. Elven weapons are only okay and ebony weapons look too eastern. The rest have silly colors. I don't want to fight with crayons.

My level 34 melee warrior is still in Hide Armor. What can I say, I like the way it looks.

Looks>Power.

I don't wear any of that ridiculous looking Elven and Glass armor. I usually go for the Leather looking armor (Thieves Guild armor, etc.)

I'm a Light Armor person, don't wear Heavy Armor, sooo..

mainly I wear archmage robes it works both ways for me.

I wore the Nightgale Armor for a long time (and it's still stashed in my house). Just made a set of dragonscale armor though, and it's a pretty fitting look for a dragonborn Argonian.

Because I roleplay, I only use the best possible available gear.

My characters don't want to die.

I favor power over looks, but why can't you have both? With appearance slots, that would stop players from having to choose or lose perk bonuses as well as offer up the opportunity to introduce tons more clothing to the mix.

let's rephrase that: Immersion vs Ingame stats

Why do players feel like they need to choose between the two? You do not have to. The fact that the game is designed this way currently just exemplifies poor design decisions.

It's kind of wierd walking around town in Daedric armor and having no one react to it, I wear normal clothes in town and wear the coolest and most practical looking armor outside of town.

It depends in many things. At first I like to have gear which fits for my character - feels and looks good. For example my Nord warrior almost always were using Stormcloak Officer armor which feels and looks like a clothing. My Thalmor agent was wearing DB gear at assasination tasks, Hooded Thalmor Robes when in towns or travelling on roads and disguises when escaping after murder. His favorite disguises were Alik'r warrior suite, guard suite and cook's suite. Orc warrior were always wearing heavy armor - after creating orcish one he had it always on. Now I'm playing with Imperial who sold his better stuff and bought enough steel to forge all parts Imperial armor when he went on his first mission to get officially join in the legion.

Thanks to the magical trio of Enchantment, Alchemy and Smithing I can pick armor and weapons for their looks, not their stats.

I go with whatever suits the character, for my trypical huntress builds that generally means fur. I'm annoyed that armor class, value, and weight are the only attributes they have. Would love to see things like appearance (daedric should scare most away, lol), insulation, conductivity, buoyancy, stiffness/rigidity, hardness/armor penetration value, corrosive degradation, and and so. Things that would matter well in a role playing setting, and which we have the computing power to calculate on the fly as needed.

Because I roleplay, my characters wear only those pieces of gear that are most appropriate to their personalities, regardless of meta-game "stats."

Playing as a Wood Elf kinda like Link from TLoZ so i found a similar tunic and thats the way hell stay

Looks for RPing.

That's right. I think it would be best if those stats would be hidden (including enchantments) - then you have to use item to get any kind of idea of it's power.

Totally agree with what you're saying.

The fact that Bethesdas avatar - the protagonist in the skyrim adverts and wallpapers - wears iron and steel equipment shows that only the less fantasical equipment looks decent in the land of skyrim. Elven and orcish look good too when on the respective races. Unfortunately steel, elven and orcish are only mid-tier at the most. I suppose fortunately with smithing and enchantments, even the good looking fur equipment can give a decent armour rating

I think that is a seriously good idea because it would remain more of a mystery to the players thus mixing up the choices even more.