Not really a part of the game world as much as a game mechanic, and expecting game mechanics to stay the same will only stifle any kind of progress in a series that can improve a lot when it comes to game play.

I don't think people understand what Todd meant when he said "spreadsheety".

No, it doesn't have to do with looking like an Excel table.

No, spellmaking is a part of the game world. There is no progress or improvement by limiting choices and removing abilities.

Were it removed because of spreadsheetyness, we would have been informed such the first time we asked. Instead we were told they were working on it, the same with horses which are now confirmed to be in. It does not take that long to determine something's spreadsheetoscity. This leads me to belive they did try to implement it but couldn't get it to work to their satisfaction or balance it properly.



Perhaps you could enlighten us? He used it to mostly refer to attributes right? This is just my opinion, but I think he should have said something like "metagamey" or "micromanagey." Something that makes you feel like your playing the system rathe than the game. Am I correct in thinking this?

His point was clear. He wants magic for dolts. He wants those wowed by flash and bangs to enjoy using spells and not be turned off by anything that takes a little bit of thought or logic to work out.

Which is fine, really. But it can also be done without ruining the experience for those that expect such things.

Yes, there can be. Some abilities and choices ruined game balance. People like to throw around the word "choice" on these forums like it'll win any argument and is absolutely always better if there are more choices, more abilities, more anything, as if including one thing has no effect on other things. "Should we have the choice to eat at McDonald's in Skyrim? WHY WOULD THEY LIMIT OUR CHOICES BY NOT INCLUDING THIS?!?!" But I'd like to not have a game consisting of so many choices that there is no challenge or balance to it's game play. There are good kinds of choice and bad kinds of choice.



That was clearly not his point, otherwise they wouldn't have included trap functionality for spells, and channeling, charging+releasing, and so on. It also didn't take a genius to make spells in previous games, was pretty easy to realize Drain Health 100pts for 1 sec + 100% Weakness to Magic for ~2 seconds was better than a much more costly and low magnitude elemental spell.

its a single player game.
Balance is not a factor.

You see, that is the problem...

They shot themselves in the foot from the beginning. How the heck do you redesign a system while completely ignoring such a basic aspect of it? If they gave it even minor consideration throughout the process there would be no need for "working on it" at the end.

Did quarter pounders exist in TES? No?

Oh, I think your argument fell apart....