Remember in Oblivion how in the beginning you could specialize your character? I really miss that. You could choose so many perks! In this game, everything is assigned and I really wish it was like Oblivion. However the perks in Skyrim are amazing so I shouldn't complain. I'm just saying that I miss my "own" character.

I don't. I like the perks more than classes - you still have to define a class, because of the limited perks, but you also have greater freedom to 'branch out' into new skills and such. You can also pick and choose your specializations within skills - will you be better with fire, lightning or frost? Do you prefer to conjure atronachs or summon the dead?

What I do miss are the birthsigns. I think they could work really well with the standing stones.

I don't like the Skyrim system. In Oblivion, you could start out with a decent skill level in a few skills but they are all low in Skyrim since you can't pick major/minors. The perk system isn't really that great since you are forced to take certain perks and some are just stupid, like the 50% reduction perks you are forced to take to advance the magical trees. If we went to custom classes like Oblivion(which really is just as customizable as Skyrim is) and used the Fallout perk system, it would have worked out just fine IMO.

This.

example... i started off with a sneaky archer character in skyrim but began meddling around with illusion & destruction, now that character uses mainly magick.

It's great that YOU define you character's class, not the game.

But I suppose some folk prefer to be hand-held from the get go and led the the way how they should play... each to their own.

I approve this message. Not that it matter's what i approve of, this is merely my opinion.

Its not much of a difference, only now you specialize your character while training him.

I hated the oblivion level system, i spent loads of time looking through all the "major and minor" skills crap on the wiki.

The standing stones are an alternative to the birth signs. I like the stones because I can change them whenever I want. Could you do that with the Birth Stones in Oblivion?

I like the Skyrim leveling much better as well. I think it's a big difference. I also hated the major/minor system.

I pretty much agree with this. I generally feel that there is more depth to the perk system than the old class system.

I like the perks and leveling, I just want to choose my classes and choose what I will have +10 or +5 to.

I suppose that is where the race comes in. I agree that having a few skills we could increase at the start of the game(like Fallout for example) would be noce though.

Did you not notice all the Standing Stones had the same names and effects (for the most part) as the Birthsigns from previous games?

I'm fine with Skyrim's perk system, I just wish they didn't make them so boring. Why have a perk for how hard we hit when the skill itself can determine that. Let perks be perks, special abilities that make the use of our skills more efficent.