There are people on these forums who are over sixty, yet Bethesda insists on trying to appeal to children who have no experience with the series whatsoever...I will never understand what goes on in todd howard's head.
It's not all Senor Todd
either the illuminati have their dabbling fingers in, or it's part of this current game craze

(around the time COD games were getting big for example, with the idea that a game could sell more than blockbuster movies and cause a massive internet blaze and inspire young guys to make internet groups/ film/ music/ game gourmet (you name it) testing out real guns or making silly vids... =]
Yes it all happened before but it seems for the last few years things are teetering towards appealing to MORE people... and smaller independent game studio's are getting gobbled up and merged with massive leviathan like companies... (that's not to say many will stay true to their cause =] )
It's alot of marketing and advertising, trying to make people want it, even knowing nothing about it.... hence that awesome trailer advert with the real guy garbed in an iron helmet and hide armour that was aired on TV months before release... you know how much 30 seconds of tv advert time costs for how long they aired that? I was getting dizzy before it hit the shelves!
THOUGH that being said there is an exception to every rule here. (apart from adverts cost a bomb that is fact obviously

) though that's assumptions from a vague look at a few yearly trend... perhaps someone knows (has bothered) to look up the meaty details

these words are open to debate (prepares for inherent

when saying something they 'know' little about yet see and suspect alot)

RELEVANCE TO TOPIC EDIT:- I also make notes! it started with potion recipe's (I often lost where I put the ones in game and I consider looking online cheating ^^) But I soon had the same problem with misc quests.
I also make notes of dates I visited mines! a notepad with loads of different mine names with a table underneath saying.... last visited... updated every ore replenishment cycle ;P
just goes wrong when i forget what character it was o.O