Everyone's assuming that no attributes means no more race or birthsigns to choose from, which would further limit the character creation archetypes and fun that comes with customizing your own character. These things are a staple of many succesful RPG's to date. People are also assuming that everyone starts out exactly the same as a jack of all trades and doesn't really get a distinction until the later stages of the game.

However, there is one new system added that would make race perks and Birthsigns still work: the perk system!

Seems pretty simple for bethesda to just design 10 or so different perks you will automatically start out with depending on which 10 or so different birthsign you pick to be born under, and just have each race have their own perks as well that do the same effect as the attribute bonuses in the old games.

I.E. an altmer born under Atronoch would get the "altmer perk" which gives bonuses to your starting magica and regeneration and a boost to destruction, while atronouch would give you a perk that has you start with a constant spell absorbtion effect, largely boosted magicka values, but with no regeneration.

Perks are really the wild cards here and it seems like Bethesda is putting all their cards on this system to be the big thing that defines the characters we love to design ourselves. Hopefully they are like that vs. Fallout which has more silly or passive perks (which works with that design of that game).

I think it would be MUCH deeper of a character role playing game in the end if they go all out on perks. Imagine being level 20, and having 5-10 different perks related to daggers, a race perk and birthsign one that gives you bonuses in stealth, some perks that deal with random encounters and luck (to really have that "lucky theif" motief going"), 5 or so perks related to wearing lighter armor, etc.

Seeing as we'll have over 50 perks to our characters by the end game, it sounds like they probably will be going "all out" on perks and having that define who you are as a character. If so, then this will probably end up being on of the deepest most effective skill system used in a TES game to date.

It scares me though, because this is something that would be easy to bomb by not having a solid, deep and large variety of perks to work with depending on your skills you have.

Has it actually been confirmed that attributes will not be included? Or is everyone saying that because of an assumption made based on a screen shot from gameinformer's article? If this has actually been confirmed, could someone show me when and where it was confirmed? I'd really like to see for myself.

It's pretty much confirmed by connecting the dots. Not listed anywhere in the article, the screenshots of the completed menu system have that section missing, and they are not listed in the skill menu.

Also, when you level up it's been confirmed all that happens is you pick health, magic, or stamina to boost. If there were attributes, then why would they be missing from any way to level them up?

Race-unique perks would definitely make sense. Not just at the start, but also unique perks that each race can gain as they level up.

Well the Class system is gone, which im fine with.

I HIGHLY doubt attributes are completely out of the picture, I am guessing they are hidden in the maths and calculations somewhere and if not then I dunno.

I agree.

Maybe an orc starts out with the berserk perk, letting him fly into a rage. And then, as your orc gains experience, he can also gain additional perks to upgrade his berserk ability.

Yeah, I'm not convinced attributes are gone entirely (and I certainly hope they aren't). Some kind of confirmation on that would be great...

If they are gone, though, I agree with the OP. Birthsign and racial bonuses would simply take another form (perks as mentioned, or skill bonuses).

No, it has not been confirmed.