I'm a console gamer so i'll tell you how they should play it properly.

1. Buy the game.
2. Take the game home.
3. Put the game in your console.
4. Start the game.
5. ??????????
6. Profit.

Fixed

Getting as confused as I could. That's what I like about a completely new game.

I don't think there's a specific way to play the game. I don't think killing everything and looting all the time is the most exciting way to play.

Dont wear pants. Thats the most important thing. No pants.

^ this.

I once wore pants while playing and man, my 45 lvl paladin svcked so badly I got killed by a pidgeon.

You missed one item. After number 10, Item 11: Go back to number 1 and repeat. Do this over and over till your computer burns out.

Such is the beauty of an individual player game. You can play any way you like without concern of what anyone else thinks of it.

Your little personal playground to do as you please.

Want a pillow fort, make one.

When the new elder scroll is written, you shall be it's scribe. much.

There is no proper way to play this game. This is a sandbox game. You play like you want.

There is no way to properly play it, other than however you want. There is a near infinite amount of ways to play the game with different combinations or marality, class, playstyle, quests etc, there is no way to figure it out. If you are new, just play, and your preferable play style will come naturally.

basically, you kill mudcrabs. Each is worth 17 points, plus an extra point if he farts while you kill him.

As many have already stated, play any way you like that fits your normal style/preference, be it in an rp sense or just a plain gameplay fashion. Do you go main Quest before side quests, the opposite, MQ only, SQ's only, then freeplay?
Freeplay mainly only doing SQ's when you trip over them, it is all doable.

I have played all games since Daggerfall.

I have rarely gone MQ.

examples from the past.

Argonian in Morrowind with sealife mod. he was a simple spear fisherman who swam around the island gathering pearls, he was my chill character when I did not feel like any challenges.

In Oblivion I had an elven hunter. he mainly used archery and only hunted wolves and Deer. If he found a cave he would sometimes venture in, but not very often at all. If he encountered bandits he ran.

I have played a thief who only stole silver items.

I have had characters that only did say one Guild questline. A Thief , a Dark Brother, a Warrior etc.

I made a dungeon looter who when killing bandits and necros would lay out their bodies in a certain fashion with clothing neatly stacked at their feet.

And many more.

In Skyrim for example I will for my first character, play a Nord (With his own backstory) who will head for the nearest town and try and lay low and start a new life in some craft fashion and settle dow, buy a house etc.

later characters will be as varied as any I have created in the past.

Elder scrolls = Imagination and the playground to realise it.

How did you attain the OPs name?

As well as no wrong way

It's what makes these games so good any re-playable

oh come on you dont need to be asking how to properly play skyrim, just play it the way you want it

ROFL
Go in a cave kill things with a big axe?

I didn't miss it.

Beat me to it...

FALSE.

There is no "correct" way to play. The entire premise behind this title is to "do whatever you want." If you don't want to do the main quests, you don't have to...ever. Whatever YOU choose is correct, because it's your choice, no one else's.

Same way you've played FO3 and NV, the over all gameplay is pretty much the same.

How do you play a TES game?

Do what ever the hell you want and Flourish like a SuperRainbow
:ahhh:

There is no right or wrong way, only YOUR way. :celebration:

which ever way makes you feel you got your monies worth,

Personally to me that's actually RPing with a few mods and a not doing the main quest more then once but do the side quests (the other supposedly 394 hours of the game) repeatably with tons of new set ups and ways.