Hi folks, I'm a Skyrim transplant, so go easy. Enjoyed Skyrim, but I'm switching to Oblivion. It should arrive tomorrow. Getting the "Greatest Hits" version on PS3 (so I don't have to worry about bugs w/ vampires and such). I figure I'll add on the add ons later.

But here's my question... and go easy, remember I've been spoiled by the relative simplicity of Skyrim. I go through the UESP about attributes, major and minor, governing attributes, skills and classes... and my eyes start to glaze over like it's the 80s and I've just bought a new PnP RPG in a cardboard box... so, is there a more simple way of figuring out what is important and what isn't? I have a master's degree, so I thought I'd have this figured out, but clearly my masters is not in RPG instructions.

Mind you, this isn't a complaint, I'm really excited to get started but I also like a certain degree of focused gameplay and don't want to waste time working my "panhandling" skill, or whatever, if it's all for no reason.

Anyway, thanks in advance!

"Classes" are just major skill combinations. You can pick a premade one or make your own.
Major skills level faster then minor ones and after 10 major skill increases you level up. You get to pick 7 major skills at the beginning of the game, or use a pre-made class.
Each skill has a governing attribute. But their only importance is that during level-up you get to choose 3 attribute increases, and the size of those increases depend on the number of total skill increases you had at that level. Don't get too confused about that now, you can worry about "efficient levelling" and such nonsense once you have some experience with the games character system.
Only know that each attribute has an effect on your character, and most of them are quite intuitive. Strength lets you carry more and hit harder, Intelligence lets you cast more spells etc...
Skills work like in Skyrim, only without perk trees. Instead you automatically get perks at 25, 50, 75 and 100 skill levels.

Generally I'd advice you to just pick a pre-made class at first and play. Most will be clear with experience.