By simplified I mean fewer spells, although more spell-effects or traget-focus... Whatever. They are making it all wrong. You shouldn't have to equip spells. That's it. And combine spells? Fine! If you make on yourself at an altar, or some-such. Bah! I'll hold my tounge untill it's released, but if they make the mages un-playable, I'm returning it, seeing as I always play as a mage, nothing but a mage and purely a mage.

I always play mages too, and am a bit tired of saying to myself that I can't use this, or make that spell, or enchant all this, that the game allows, to have a challenge. Anyway this is off topic, so I'll say no more here.

I think the elimination of classes was a brilliant move. They were meaningless and totally unnecessary in TES.

yes

not really I'm glad they are removed

once (mage) all other classes had a skill or 2 that bugged me so I had to custom make one.

Well, I would like a title for RP reasons. But I'm glad that classes are gone.

Instead of REMOVING them they could have IMPROVED them. Change just to make change isn't good. Change because you are too lazy to fix what you have it also not good.

It's a disgrace that when I load up the game the only thing I'll recognize from TES is the name, the game world and the characters. Gone are the staples of TES RPG's like Classes and Birthsigns. You don't replace things that define a series, you improve on them.

Improve... how?

Removing it was such a big improvement.
I mean, it gives the player feel of something more real...
There is no classes, as you play, you'll be building you character...
That's the right idea.

The title was something that was displayed in the character section of the menu. Not sure how much that helped you in your RP. Did you sometimes forget what class you were playing or something, so you needed a reminder?

I feel that while classes have always been a staple in RPG's, it was merely a restriction of the technology of our age. Back in the days of old until only more recent years, "classes" have existed as a way to give you pre-set numbers to fit in a system to give it balance. Now as the systems grow more capable and technologies functions grow ever more detailed, it only makes sense that "classes" become more of an archetype.

Now we finally have the ability to simply do the natural action of whatever it is our character does. What drew me to the Elder Scrolls was the system that grew with you depending on your actions, not on a pre-set path. I adored Oblivion, but the whole +5 system just didn't work and I felt restricted us far too much as the world around you levelled much better than you did. But here, finally we have a system that sounds like it will finally put all the numbers and sheets(The ones that were not all that complicated, only tedious.) underneath your actions and lets us just play the game.

Your "classes" still exist, it's just as opposed to picking it off of a list, you have to actually become it. Also, you are not constricted to it. With the addition of a large number of "perks", it will add more gameplay aspects as opposed to being mainly a battle of numbers. You will be watching out not only for ways to use your own perks, but what perks will be used against you. If what i see in my mind is what will happen down in gameplay, I'm certain we'll forget all about the "simplification".

Im entirely indifferent to this because I never once did NOT use a custom class

The classes were merely titles with skill/attribute bonuses. I still however would like to obtain a title to define what my character built into.

Too lazy to fix them? It takes more work to make the change that they did and get it all to work properly than to fix the class system. They aren't being lazy, they made an executive decision to try something different that they felt makes more sense.

You are really being dramatic here with such emotionally charged verbeage. There are tons of things that still make this game an RPG. Heck, the new system isn't any less "rpg" anyways. Its just different, and in my opinion, better. And classes didn't go anywhere. They were never there in the first place.

And yes, if something that defined the series was flawed, and you've got a better idea to implement, rather than try to improve the old series, it is perfectly valid to replace it. Not sure where you got your rules about game features. What it comes down to is whether or not the replacement is good.

Remove classes... I stand by my earlier statement. A club-wielding moron also casting charm-spells... Why not? And why not make fire freeze and ice warm, and swords blunt and clubs sharp? But then again, it's sinlge-player, so I'll be free to play my pure mage anyway and all others are free to create whatever mish-mash of a creature they see fit.

Well birthsigns were only in MW and Oblivion so they're hardly a staple of the series although I do miss them and would've preferred them kept.
Still I can't regard any game mechanic as something that defines the series. The game world defines the series.

Just to make sure I understand you correctly, you want the system, after a certain period of time and progression, to give you a title to match your play style?

Classes were a staple of RPGs now?

Poor GURPS, Fallout, Ultima, Deus Ex... (I would even say Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion too), they're not real RPGs...

And no, you cannot just "improve" classes, and hope for a free-form character development like in Morrowind or Oblivion.

No.

Ahhh.....wonderful Ultima. How I miss the olden days of Ultima Online. My favorite "class" system yet. This is why I appreciate the direction Bethesda is taking. Its almost as if they are taking a page from their play book with this new system.

the classes were nothing more than a preset list of skills and nothing else

dont miss them

I'm not quite sure how to answer the question. I do want to be able to define my character prior to play, I don't necessarily think the restrictive leveling in past systems made any sense. So do I want "classes"? Yeah, sort of. but the way they've been implemented in the past left a lot to be desired.

To quickly comment on this: Removing a critical part of particular system and then saying, "Hey, without this part, the system doesn't really work. We should cut the system," is pretty absurd. The only reason the system no longer works is because you cut that part out of it.

It's like in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. They inserted this weird take-down ability that takes out your opponent in a single shot automatically every time. Then they said, "Oh [censored], this is way overpowered. We better limit it by requiring take downs to use bio-energy." They broke the system, and rather than fixing it by properly implementing melee combat, they simply further [censored] up the system they broke.

You can still place as any class you desire. Nothing stopping you from picking six to seven skills to use before playing a character.

I liked the Witch-hunter class, from the presets, and I plan to play one in Skyrim(eventually).

Do you plan on elaborating beyond that?

You see, I want the title "Drekisbane" which translates to dragonslayer.
Perhaps, I as a Nord could give myself a title like most Nords.