I hear a LOT about how important it is to start off with just the right race and birthsign, and how extremely important it is to level up the right way, otherwise the game becomes way too hard. Is it possible to just play the game how I want to play it, without worrying so much about how many times I jumped, or times I swing a blade as opposed to blunt weapons, etc? I want to be able to explore, go wherever, do whatever, etc without the game suddenly becoming a difficulty nightmare by the time I'm a level 15 or 20. I've seen some people say just play how you like and have fun, but it seems like most people say you really have to focus on what and how you level, otherwise the game becomes a real pain! Just looking for opinions!! I've played Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur, and Dragon's Dogma lately. Love all three, especially DD and Skyrim, but I feel drawn to lose myself in Oblivion from all the things I've heard. Let me know what you think. And thanks!!!

I think that you should just play, and enjoy. You may learn things from your first character that will make you want to start again at some point, but the game is rich enough to support multiple play-throughs anyway.

The only piece of advice I'd give is to take it slow, and don't intentionally spam skills to speed up your leveling. Use the skills that you actually need for combat, and make sure that you keep your equipment and magic (assuming you use it) up-to-date. Fast leveling is not a good idea in this game; the "pain" that people talk about comes from being impatient, and forcing their character's level up too fast. (The world levels with you.)

It is my opinion that roleplaying games tend to attract a high percentage of quasi-OCD personalities, the kind of people who, back in the old days, could happily spend hours re-arranging everything in their inventories so it all fit into the smallest possible space in the most efficient manner. These types of people tend to focus on details, sometimes, to the exclusion of actually relaxing for a bit and having fun.

One of the glories of the Elder Scrolls games is that they are amazingly flexible. They accomodate idiosyncratic play styles better than any other games I know. As glargg says, it is perfectly possible to just play, and have fun. I think most of us who have been playing these games for years would tell that just doing whatever you want to do and playing however you want to play is the best way to get the most satisfaction out of these games in the long run.

That would be me. Third character, and still OCDing over stats plus RP boundaries. This time around, more like OCDing over trying to not OCD over stats. I know the game well enough to know that a character can do perfectly fine being underequipped and without 5/5/5 leveling, in fact, efficiant playing overpowers characters and removes any challenge and danger. So OP, if you can help it, please do yourself a favor and don't even think about efficient leveling.