Where do ithe start? Leveling is ridiculously simplified. The attributes from previous Elder Scrolls games (i.e., Strength, Intelligence, etc.) do not exist in Skyrim - only Health, Magick, Stamina. Of course, too complex system would require this horrible thing called thinking. Almost everything in game has less complexity and depth. Morrowind was simplified in comparison to daggerfall, maybe because of the technical difficulties. Oblivion was more primitive than morrowind. And Skyrim takes this to another level. So in the next game what? You press X to auto-win and O to see next cutscene? That said, I will probably still enjoy this game as an epic adventure. But The Elder Scrolls series is more dead than alive.

Magic has been completely gutted. I'm not going to pick a lock if I'm a mage. I'm supposed to use my magic to open locks. But now it's impossible. It never was before, and it makes no sense to remove open lock spells.

No silence.

No chameleon.

No open lock.

No attributes, so now I can't cast fortify attribute or drain attribute.

No weapon/armour durability, so now I can't cast damage armour/weapon.

No nighteye.

No cure disease.

No jump spell.

No water walking.

Definitely no mark/recall.

Definitely no levitation.

And those are just the ones off the top of my head.

They ruined magic.

And weapons? Well, they dumbed those down too. Now we have "one-handed" and "two-handed" nonsense.

I miss the old days where you actually had to specialize in certain weapons, and axes were not the same as swords. And daggers were not the same as maces.

And don't tell me "oh but you can specialize still! it's in the perk tree!". Because that's a load of crap. The specializations for each sub-set of weapons is beyond shallow. If they had devoted a seperate perk tree for short blades, long blades, axes, and blunt weapons, the game would be so much more satisfying but noooo, they had to choose money and greed over quality and complexity. Buncha sellouts. Vanilla Skyrim is a failure as far as TES games are concerned.

The Elder Scrolls has become very mainstream with the success of Oblivion and Skyrim, but yes they have alienated some longtime fans which is bad buisness. But my point is now that the series has hit the limelight they should now start adding back more depth that us RPG players love that would be great for everyone.

Please don't lump me in with you. I like playing RPGs. I don't like playing games that are designed like giant math problems, requiring me to create excel spreadsheets for my character if I want to have a hope of playing them past level 10.

The only thing I even remotely agree with in your post is that I'd like to have the Open Lock spells back. Everything else is the same tired-out whining I've heard since before the game came out.

Oh, and since I keep hearing the constant litany of "there's no more variation between classes, blah blah blah blah" I'd like to ask something. What type of character could I play in Oblivion or Morrowind that I can't play in Skyrim? And if you say "spear-carrier", I'll hunt you down and do bad things to you.

Where should you start? Well, how about stop making these endless threads about how you hate the game and move on. This is not your game, too bad, but you don't need to advertise it to everyone because nobody cares and the few that agree are busy making their own threads.

Role-playing game. Play a role in a game.

Specialisation à la DnD is as far as RPG you can come. In a RPG the story and how the character relates to it is what matters. The rest is just nostalgia regarding old game mechanics.

Regarding magic. Sure it would be nice with some more spells, but it doesn't make it more or less RPGy.

The OP is what I call a chronic complainer. It's actually a form of attention seeking. They want reassurance.

He also had a thread on how he was going to start a new build in Oblivion, in the Skyrim section. He obviously hasn't done that yet. He'd rather be in the Skyrim section moaning and complaining about the game.

Here's an article on chronic complainers, if you read, it's the OP.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201107/the-survival-guide-dealing-chronic-complainers

I could put together a basic anolysis of him as a person but that would get me banned

Closed for review.