I have not been swimming for quite a fair few years but Im confident I would still be able to swim just as well as before.
The skills in skyrim do not seem like things you forget in a matter of weeks, unless you use the wait command for months at a time there would be no reason for you to even think that your skills skills decrease naturally.

This already happens, in a way.
When jailed you can randomly lose skill advances.
I think thats as far as it should go.

Core feature? No.
Mod? Sure.

Effects from things in-game which lower your stats either temporarily or permanently are fine with me (potions, ingredients, diseases, conditions, spells, disfavour with Daedric gods, etc.) but I don't think I'd enjoy it if my character started to level down for no apparent reason after I'd done so much work to level up. I can at least reverse the effects of even permanent stat/skill alterations if I wanted to. I think there are enough stat/skill alteration effects in the game and atrophying over time just doesn't appeal to me.

That being said, it could possibly fit into a hardcoe mode, if they have one. People who play this mode want bad things to happen to them so they live for this type of challenge.

this would be a pretty big pain in the ass
but i guess if you could only lose like 5 points from not doing something, and you could turn it off, it might work
but itd still lose its RP realism pretty fast and just become an annoyance
putting a bit too much realism into a game in my opinion

I would not mind the not being to get a skill to perfect as there is no perfect, because that could make a warrior or mage more powerful as you don't have a limit of how high you can go in skill. But I don't want my skill to skills atrophy over time.

this

no, youre wrong. all it would do is annoy the players

If a hardcoe game mode element was introduced, I think this would be a viable feature. However for normal gameplay I believe keeping it how it has always been will be the winner on this occasion.

I once again go with the "biased poll" comment, but thats not a big deal really. Honestly, I do not want this as a mainstay in the core game, this is definately something that is easily modded, and I think is easy to see that the majority of people dont want. I like some realism in games, more in some games, less in others. This is a bit of realism I really don't care to see in Skyrim, but I'm sure a mod will come out that will suit your needs

"Oh crap i dont remember how to hold weapon! oh damn now it fell into the water..."

sorry to inform you. This is a GAME. A game is meant to be something fun and enjoyable. while it is cool whengames have SOME immersion it should under NO CIRCUMSTANCE be a reflection of the real world. what would be the purpose of game that stcuk completely to the laws of the real world?

Severely biased poll options, but still the option it is biased against is winning the poll by a long shot. That really goes to show you something...

Firstly, I notice many of you are putting forth the "nobody forgets things like riding a bike, swimming, reading, etc. over a matter of weeks" argument.

To counter this, I would say that most of the skills in the game are not these basic tasks. Learning an incantation, understanding the inner workings and properties of alchemical ingredients, knowing exactly how to forge the ringlets and intertwine them to repair a damaged coat of mail... these are more advanced than basic skills like riding a bike or swimming. Also fighting effectively is a bit more complicated than "swinging a sword". That's why they took athletics and acrobatics out. If you learn the complicated process of curing leather work once or armour once or twice and then don't do it again for a month, there is a high chance you won't be able to reproduce your work as well as you did when it was fresh in your mind. Yes, you would be able to relearn what you lost, hence my whole threshold argument, which most of you seem to skim over.

Secondly, many of you also are against this idea because you think it would be frustrating and annoying, only punishing the player.

Why is it that much of a punishment when the skills that are atrophying are the ones you never use? Is a burly Nord whose stealth skill was 14 going to see that it has decayed to 12 after a while and be pissed? No, why would he care? And if he does, why would a warrior suddenly want to become a stealth oriented character instantly? Of course any character could transition under this system if they wish, but it would be more of a lengthly transition, which is more realistic. Or is everyone in here whining because they won't be able to easily be the "master of all trades" god? - which is exactly what this system is trying to make difficult. I would call it less of a punishment and more of a keeping the player on their toes.

But yeah, would never be implemented except in the dream of hardcoe mode

Just wait for a mod for it

I will. I knew that almost everyone would be against the idea, and mostly just made this topic to argue my point out of boredeom haha.

I knew people would be up in arms about this, but if people comprehended my post then they would realize that really the only people getting "punished" under this system would be the people who want to be the master of all trades gods, which I think is good. It would still be possible, since we don't want to limit the player in any way, but it would just become much more difficult.

Now add that you use months forgetting and a year in Morrowind and Oblivion was a very long time.

I don't think this is the case as the OP and about 20 other poll responders have said it would be a good idea. Definately not something for me though.

Meh, I'm not a fan of hyper-realism in this kind of game. They could make you eat, drink, sleep, bathe, use the toilet, stretch before a fight and take a 5 minute rest after every hour of running around. There's nothing fun about feeling forced to use everything all the time, even stuff that's sub-optimal or annoying in a given situation, just because you'll lose it if you don't.

Still missing an option in the poll, game time on one character too short to forget anything more than where you put your keys. I said in a perk re spec thread, it's alright learning new stuff quickly, but how do you 'speed forget'?

Because that is part of the appeal of Elder Scrolls games. It isn't even for those who want to be jacks of all trades. It is for those who want to experiment, try new things, expand characters in new directions.

Perks are already there to limit your growth as a jack-of-all-trades, yet do not discourage experimentation. I see no reason to include atrophy as well.

only to some degree but not all the way.

You do this everytime people disagree with you. Just because we disagree, doesn't mean we're uneducated.

You're right, some people probably comprehended it in its entirety and still disagree for their own reasons, but I still suspect there was a large portion who jumped into arguing as soon as they thought they understood what I meant in general without fully comprehending the details of my post