You terrible terrible person! "All I ask for is a pair of boots... How hard could it be?" --Basks-In-The-Sun (Bloodmoon shipmaster), now imagine him in Skyrim...

yes the tail seems better and the overall anatomy is better (its a drawing still) though I would have liked to have the more beasty legs but if they make them look beasty without it won't matter.

and the spear he is holding oh the joy :celebration:

I think it's too soon to really glean anything from the only obscure corner of a much bigger picture we can't see. I'm pretty sure that what we are actually looking at is not a piece of technical art, like those pictures of the elven armor. I can't remember what exactly we called it, but it's purpose is to inspire and pump up the dev teams, so I'll just call it inspirational art. This are usually your big and elaborate works that depict a detailed scene or environment.

If we were, however, shown it in a manner like the elven armor pictures, then I would feel differently.

As for the image itself... I really can't say I see it's legs bent in any "beast race" manner. I still think I'm just looking at his calf. And his feet? Obstructed by the scene and angle.
I'll admit I have piss-poor vision, though, but I still think I should repeat that I feel this picture means very little definitive.

What would I like to see? I would like them to be digitigrade. Perhaps not to the extent as Morrowind's but I would like them to look different, because argonians ARE different. Ideally I would want this reflected not only in the way they look (and a lizard head, tail, and scales don't cut it), but in the way they move, they way they behave, they way they talk, and especially the way people treat them. That's why I enjoy playing them so much.

Anyways, I know there are people out there who feel it would take too many assets to make them like this. While it's true that it would take more time, its really not as bad as most people think. So long as the legs have the same number of bones as a human leg, armor and pants won't have to be modified for them (though I would like to see armor that accommodates tails, rather than force them through it), and I believe this was the case for Morrowind. Boots would have to be redesigned, of course, but a talented mesh artist would have no trouble with this task at all. A work around a lot of us familiar with the TESCS did in Morrowind was simply remove the actual "foot" object for the boots, and now magically we had Argonians and Khajiit wearing boots.

Animation would be by far the biggest challenge for the digitigrade design, but while Bethesda may let me down sometimes, they absolutely blow me away other times. I have little doubt they can pull of something like this.

Well, anyways, those are my thoughts. I wish I had time to proofread, but I really must be going.

This concept clearly shows the leg bending backwards. You can tell not only by looking at where the joints are and comparing it to the anatomy of a human, but you can also look at what would be the shin (if it were human legs). The shin part should be straight on human-like legs. However in this picture, you can clearly make out an arch on the shin part, indicating that it is actually bending backward http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/1931/screenshot20110128at239.png.

Normally shins do tend to bend backwards if only a bit. Also he appears to be wearing armor on it, perhaps stylized so it appears bending back, perhaps not. The armor he's wearing and the dark contrast make it difficult to ascertain exactly where his bones would be. This is why I made it clear that we should really wait until we get a better, more technical depiction.

Speaking of which, what do you mean clearly? I know my eyes are bad, but is everyone else really looking at a crystal clear image of an argonian with 100% obvious digitigrade legs while I'm left squinting like Mr. Magoo?

I look at my shin and it's completely straight until the knee where the kneecap bulges out. If someone's shin does bend back, it will only be a little tiny bit. Now look at the picture. It's clearly bending back a lot. It is clear that the legs bend like that, I'm 100% sure that's the case. If you can't see it then I don't know what to say. But whether or not the leg actually bends doesn't matter so much considering this is only concept.

Agreed, that was a major point of my first post. Hell even if we do get that technical depiction I want it still won't be an in-game screenshot.

It is quite a small part of the picture it could just be an angle or positioning thing that makes his shins appear curved.

Now that I look really closely, I'm afraid thats his boot... when you zoom really far in, it looks really much like its just his boots witch give an illusion... still these Argonians are far better than Morrowinds and also much better than Oblivion!! And yes I know its just art and they may have that stupidlooking pose of Morrowind (the one thing Oblivion did better, but on the other hand Oblivions khajits looked like crap, so that kinda evens up the two bad beast races)

I like the concept art design more than the OB finished design but of course a lot can change from concept to final design

Here's the rest of the art for context.
http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/6535/meeting2.png