they may not have classes but they still have separate races. wut u should do is think of each race as its own class

No you can't unless you've leveled destruction before, if not, you'd be just as weak in destruction as if you did the same in Oblivion or Morrowind

Got it, interesting topic anyways.

I only played one character in oblivion. I delved for a few levels on a pure archer but went back to my pure mage. I have 150 hours on him and am still finding quests to do.

There never were classes. The system in skyrim is VERY similar to what has been used in the past. I just won't be able to pick major skills anymore (I don't think) big whoop.

Combat and skills are a minor part of what keeps me wanting to do games. It's the brain exercises that draw me in; deep plot, puzzels to solve, etc. What's more, it's having enough of these that when I play it again, I'd hardly come across any repeats.

Or

Why not just use a sword instead of a bow. You've effectivly switched class.

I voted yes. HOWEVER, I don't think that Skyrim is a game that is meant to be played through multiple times. Everything in the game seems to be intended to create an expansive, unique, and self-perpetuating story which instills a sense of individuality within the player.

You're not generic fighter X. You are you. You do what you do and learn from it. If you get tired of dungeoning then go cook for a while. When you're tired of that go join a faction. If that gets boring then play through some of the semi-procedurally generated quests. Radiant story allows one play through to last indefinitely (if the hype is to be believed). Additionally: The addition of talent trees (which you hopefully can't just pick up every part of) means that even if you are using X weapon for a long period of time, once you level up you're going to have direct control of where your points go, making class-creation a gradual, ever-expanding venture. You can play a mage the first time and pick up all of the frost talents. Then the second time pick up all the lightning talents. Then the third pick up all the fire talents.

Considering that I usually play a spellsword type, and taking for granted a certain amount of variation in the feel/interactions of different one-handed trees and different destruction tress I should be able to play (at least) nine times with a unique combat experience for each play through (or at least that's the hope). So if you're deliberately searching for maximum play throughs without varying your style to heavily you can easily do it with the talent trees. I think that they were intended for that (more or less). The idea is to give players a certain amount of control (meaning that a player who goes about it carefully can ensure a large number of playthroughs. Far more than were possible in Oblivion).

Finally: The existence of multiply factions (hopefully with conflicting guidelines, like in Morrowind) would force someone who wishes to experience EVERY QUEST in the game to create a character for each compatible faction set and ascend to the highest possible rank (oh please God don't make every rank the chief officer of that organization without some SERIOUS quest conflict). The problem that kept me to 3 real play throughs of Oblivion and thousands of hours of modding and jacking around was this. I had completed every quest and raised every skill to 100. What now? Nothing, that's what. The game was beatable with a single character in less than 1000 hours of play (fewer with guides).

This.

No, every playthrough is a new playthrough. Period.

People have already said it, but with the perk system, assuming it's done right, we could actually see more class diversification without being restricted by arbitrary titles. With the finite amount of perks a player can pick, I actually see the incentive to replay as different characters increase. The big thing to remember though, and I hope Bethesda has been looking at a lot of Fallout 3 and New Vegas trends, is how to design perks that really make the player choose carefully, rather than make it obvious. A good example in the new Fallout games, are things like Rad Resistance versus, say, Entomologist. Better options swing towards certain play styles, like Cowboy and Laser commander, or Silent Running versus Toughness, and ones that Build on eachother, to make exponentially powerful combination, like Better Criticals + Finesse.

They're not just doing perks, they're doing perk trees. That means that each time you choose a perk, it will open new perks and lead to further specialization. With a system like that you could go through so many different builds and specializations. As others have said, I see it leading to far more playthroughs as I would probably want to try out different combinations.

Your character is not defined by their class, but by their traits and personality. Stuff YOU, the player, make up on your on. Unless my character sees a need to practice a skill, or take a perk, he wont do it.

No, I will likely be more inclined to do multiple playthroughs. Limited numbers of perks mean my master magician cannot be the same character as my master swordsman and my Gandalf-type mix may have to be yet another character.