If perks can truly do what Attributes did, Attributes would best be removed since the memory could be used elsewhere. Most people likely don't want to deal with the numbers and just play the game. Skills are pretty basic, practice them and they'll improve. Not hard to manage, and perks likely have some form of benefit, so a player can choose one they think is best. Also, perks don't have to be constant in effect, the strength of the perk can be dependance on other factors as well, so it can still be small jumps instead of giant jumps. Under the setup of perks and skills, I imagine it would be easier to build the character to a player's style of play or a certain of playing (warrior, mage, thief, etc.) In terms of the general audience (and in turn business), it would be better overall to replace attributes with perks, since perks likely can do much.

However, we truly don't know how effective the system will be until the game release and we see it ourselves. If the concern is in the game becoming simple in general, complexity is basically a mess of simple things.

This is my take on the whole attributes or not deal, the game as whole isn't about the stats to me, but doing what I want to do and being whatever I want to be

Awesome advice.

I must be wierd because I just like lists :read:

Very true, it is just guesswork. BUT most of these predicitve outcomes have come true. I don't just shout this crap out to aggravate. I just take out the BS and hype that everyone else adds to inflate the game into something that it's not. I simply approach it in a logical and realistic manner. Chances are I am extremely close to the mark if not the bullseye.

You do know they had them in the game for quite a long time, play tested it for a long time and only recently were like.. meh, arrtibutes feel redundant? Because that's what happened. They had strength, intellignece, etc the whole lot there, but as they played the game, it felt as a natural step forward to simply remove those and make them into three attributes instead, taking everything the old attributes and putting them into new places.

Really?....look at the oblivion manual look at the skills and the attributes,they were weak and didn't hardly effect anything. People just miss numbers ( pointless one's at that ).
How did speed effect your light armour,and so on and so on. They became usless.

The removal of attributes is once again a sign of the massive conspiracy that is Bethesda, and how they are changing things for an ultimate end, possibly something to do with terrorists or something. lol.

No but seriously, attributes may be gone, but what they did is not. They have just been changed to make more sense.

I 'd say that the developers are killing RPG factor in favour of action . The removal of attributes , skills , non combat oriented options are big indicators .
Most codexers are party/turn based oriented so their opinions are irrelevant .

Any RPG that i have ever seen use attributes as a way to define the character progression, there are no skills (DDO skills feel more like a perk).
In D&D type of game a toon can use an axe ,claymore or short sword and as long as the str is high it will damage the enemy, perks can be considered as enhancements.
in elder scrolls the player upgrade the skill, can it be considered as an attribute replacement, in my opinion it can. and thy can raise hp magikca and stamina.
As melee use one handed blade and you will do more damage with that type of blade, it can be considered as raise of str+hit chance.
People complained about how easy thy can ruin the toon in oblivion and tried not to level up (it is as easy to destroy the toon in the same way in neverwinter nights, dragon age or any other D&D game), the new skill system prevent the inability to level up, i dont know how the bundle of attribute to only 3 will work, is it smarter then having wisdom for one type of casters intelligence for another and charisma of another i have no clue i will have to play in order to know.
Do you prefer that they will spend time on att + skill mechanism or better quests and interaction, sorry to say that i prefer the second option.

The main problem with the removal of att in skyrim is that we are so used to them that it is hard to see a game without them.

they are just a system with numbers and they only add to the game as much as the developer allows...

so morn them not for they are nothing but shadows of greater things (like actual game play activities and cool skills and stuff )

Attributes were always present in TES games. So i agree with the OP that it feels wrong to not have them anymore.

And I see a lot of people posting that we have perks now. While i think this is partially true, I am not quite reassured. What do we know of the perks, except the number of them? OB had perks to. If a perk means "you can now cast level 2 spells" then i'd rather have the attribute requirement for it.

I can understand the steps that lead to this new setup and I like it more then the old way.

I never really thought of Elder Scrolls games as RPGs anyway, stats had no function outside of combat(except for personality).

I also don't think of these games as sequels to the last, just new games in the same universe, so why should every game be exactly the same?