» Thu Dec 15, 2011 5:37 am
It seems to me that degradation was removed more as a playability issue. IOW, it's pointless. It's ridiculously easy to repair/upkeep weapons and armor, especially when you're higher level and "rich". So, it's kind of like eating, one of the basic, tedious necessities that can easily be assumed to allow for more story streamlining and less nuisance interruptions. As far as intelligence levels being measured by platform preference, I am a writer and self-taught, gainfully employed programmer with a very broad knowledge base. I have tested in the past routinely in genius level range on any IQ test I've taken. My wife is about the same. My child is top of her class and performing 2-3 grade levels ahead of her peers. I prefer to play on XBox, and my wife and child prefer Wii (although the little one still plays Sims and Spore on PC). "Dumbed down for console users" is an inane statement. Perhaps, "dumbed down to aid in ease of development across multiple platforms" might, and only might, be a more appropriate statement. But it has nothing to do with any given platform's user base. Skyrim is as rich or richer than Oblivion and Morrowind. It's just different. Welcome to the world, everything changes in time. If you're not picking up on that and focusing on niggling little useless feature removals and letting that guide your assessment of the game, well, you might want to look at redefining your platform user base assessments.