I love skyrim. It's a wonderful game! Theres Dragons, the same skill system we have come to know and cherish, and even Dwemer Ruins! It's still a great TES! .... at least.... until late at night ... and I come out of my denial based delusions and cry . Oh Skyrim, I weep for what we could have been. Endless hours pass in the dark...... Skyrim, I still wait for ye... sometimes I call out... Skyrim? Is that you? But In my heart, I know there is no real Elder Scrolls anymore. Though I may come to Tamriel, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and no quest choices or real decisions. Where shall I find rest with no attributes? I weep for what could have been.

P.S. "Who really plays a guy that can run fast and jump high, anyway?" I DO HOWARD!! or at least.... I used to

is bumping against the rules?

Bumping is against the rules.

And I disagree with the "Goodnight, sweet Elder Scrolls" shtick. Acrobatics and Athletics have been removed and replaced with Stamina. Want a fast character? Invest points in Stamina and you can sprint cross-country more than anybody else. Sure, it's less noticeable than the ridiculous moonbouncing in previous games, but I prefer it that way, especially seeing how every class, including the "slow warrior heavy armor type guy" eventually ended up being that 100 Acrobatics/Athletics superhuman parkour artist if you played long enough. For the first time in history, TES allows you to make characters that are different from each other, thanks to the skill trees and the +10 stat assignments. Before, it didn't matter if you had a Nightblade whose major skills are sneak, backstabbing, and alchemy or a Paladin whose major skills were Restoration, Long Blade, and Heavy Armor, because if you played long enough on both characters, they'd end up exactly the same, with 100 in every skill. Now, those benefits are mitigated by the 81 perk limit. Sure, you don't have as many choices during character creation, but now those choices are spread out over the entire game. It's an RPG where the entire game is about building your character, and not just the first half hour during the menu screens.

I do want Acrobatics back as a skill that doesn't level from normal gameplay, but perhaps through skill checks when navigating obstacles, as well as Hand to Hand to return, though. As it is, Athletics was replaced by Stamina, but there's no substitute for Acrobatics and Hand to Hand got watered down through its integration into racial bonuses and Heavy Armor. That skill has so much potential, what with grapples, kicks, sweeps, and other hand to hand techniques. Acrobatics needs to return just because it is impossible to build a character who jumps higher now, but again, I don't want my Heavy-Armor clad warrior to end up just as nimble as a thief archer after walking a certain amount. I would also like aerial and underwater attacking back. Why would they remove those?

All the skill related gripes I can look past. My real issues are with some of the design decisions, like you mentioned. Sometimes I feel like bethesda takes 2 steps forward and step back, and most of the time for no apparant reason, other than laziness or not enough time. That is a completely different rant though...