So yeah, am I the only one here who misses the HUGE array of spells / spell animations from Morrowind? Oblivion was kind of a disappointment to me, as it was more or less: "Yeah, these spells are going to look the same, have the same casting sound etc."

What's your opinion?

how about a third choice -

brand new spell animations vastly different from anything we have ever seen before in Morrowind or Oblivion
(from the GI article I think this is what we are getting)

Well, that was kind of what I meant.. I didn't mean we should reuse spell animations from previous games, but rather add more spell animations (like Morrowind had) in contrast to the small amount Oblivion had.

That's what the first option says...more detail, like what we saw with Morrowind.

If you mean the animations/visuals of spell effects themselves, I agree that a much greater variety would be nice. I don't know how viable it'd be to have a unique visual/sound for every spell effect (there are over 80 in Skyrim, IIRC), but as long as there are dramatic differences between the major ones -- fire and frost damage, healing, etc -- I won't complain.

The character animations for spellcasting were vastly superior in Oblivion, but I'm sure they won't take a step back in that regard.

Well, I want more spell types like in morrowind so in that sense I want more spell animations. But even when Morrowind was new I thought most of the spell effects looked horrible,
it was probably the one thing back then i just thought looked plain bad in the game.

We need other choices...i want better looking spells than morrowind & oblivion.
I want epic effects,to really show a true mages/wizards power...proper lightining,different fire & ice affects allsorts of stuff.
Effects could get better as you do and so on.
We should be able to have wind affects like in fable....and also two worlds two,looks to have a great magic system,with endless posobilities.
I play on 360, but even now i watch mod videos on youtube,were people have done like midas magic spells etc,some of these modders have great imagination and ideas....and show what can be truely done with magic etc.
I commend them on their work

It's already confirmed that we get 85 different spell effects, in the GI article. I'm assuming they mean 85 different designs and animations.
Oblivion was a bit bland, in regards to the various spell animations. Fire and Frost was the same with different colours. I'd like to see people burn, freeze etc according to which spell I cast.

I hope Bethesda will take the time to implement this.

So, like, how do you do a ritual rain dance on a horse?

midas magic should pick up dark messiah at a bar, get wasted, and get it on. 9 months later when their child is born they should name it skyrim.

Someone mentioned on another thread that the GI magazine confirms there will be trap/glyph spells. That's great news IMO

Know it's turn based and all that, but in Lost Odyssey, when you cast a high level spell, you knew you were casting a spell, glyphs in the air, the character muttering about powers of darkness, and something akin to a mini nuke or firestorm. Can't do that in open world real time, but something along those lines, to make you feel, not I'm casting a fire spell, but I'm harnessing the power of magical fire.

Glyph spell....whats that?

when you cast a spell on a section of the floor and it makes a circle that causes paralysis or dispel or something if any enemies walk over it.

I dont want spells to just apear out of thin air, as if it were... magic.