Daggerfall was pretty much the most massive influx of content to the series to date, had you beena budding TES guy/gal that time you'd find out that there is ALOT on your plate, though its not all visible at once (no Lod) nor availible BUT ITS THERE and sooner or later you'll come across it or it will come across you. its massive size easily concealed many secrets and things that at the time no doub't caused many 'holy crap I can do that?" moments, the Progenitor of RS in Daggerfall gave the world some life and dynamics (for a time) with the many random quests and events you can come across.
We move on to Morrowind, and its the single greatest lost of content to date BUT it magnified whats there and placed even more emphasis on what was availible, more
detail etc etc, Morrowind had enough in diversity for many radically different play throughs and offered more options in how you would go about your character in the World from the what 12-13 joinable/interactable guilds/Factions? not to mention the subtleties throughout the world staring one dead in the face, there was reason to explore and you weren't unreasonably punished for playing the way you want.
but let me start making my point here; take for example the many skills from language to climbing/swimming, pickpocketing etc etc It made sense for much of those to be "streamlined" since this was a new engine we're talking about you, couldn't climb (even though you can in Redguard) and spells like Charm/Frenzy/Calm filled what was left of the lost from Daggerfall,(Do not read that as the spells did what the langauge skills did in Daggerfall, THEY DON'T) you couldn't talk to creatures in morrowind, it made sense for the them to "remove" the clutter abit which is why things like Swimming, pickpocketing, etc etc as skills were streamlined BUT you could still do what you desired as far as the gameworld is concerned and benefit/get better at it (character-wise) speaking of characterwise the Character maker was reduced....hard...it was still there but in a shadow of what it once was, a light touch and you're off and through the door.
Then Comes Oblivion -FURTHER- Streamlining and this is were the sick joke part starts to make sense. remember that Character Histoire? yeah its wimpering now, also Axe and Blunt are merged, probably because they are both sticks with something hurtful at the end ok not gonna explode, All bladed weapons are are also made into "Blade" even though Longswords dont handle like Shortswords don't handle like daggers, but its streamlining, as far as marketing is concerned who cares nevermind the fact that perks for blade effected ALL "BLADES"... in addition the only thing "continued" in weapon Variety from Morrowind were the Katana and Dai-Katana, very funny beth, Very funny. Spears also kick the bucket, and never rise again for the next 5 years but we have staffs, with their own animations.
The....Archtypes? is the word im looking for? for the guilds gets constrewed into black and white period, you wonder what happened to the folks that were making stories in morrowind, what were they doing in Oblivion? its telling that the sidequests which where the biggest improvement Content-wise over Morrowind was far more engaging and interesting than the 3 "main" guilds and MQ of Oblivion but in terms of streamlining, you didnt need to be anyone special, you can complete each questline of the Guilds doing the complete opposite of what that archtype Guild is(magick as TG never sneaking, Fighting in MG never learning a spell (scrolls) and Theif in FG or even mage)....now don't get me wrong I love options and the unorthodox but to become the head of the mages guild with less than 20 in all magick schools is telling...and not in a Good way.
I wont go on about enchanting since its in my next point nor levitation or mark/recall etc etc because thats basically what fast travel did. without consequence. and I'm staying away from the really over done AND poorly implemented levelscaling
So We move to Skyrim, Streamlining so hard that they had to go back and get fillers or maybe some attempt at a laugh.
Attributes bit the dust, completely WHY I don't know but H/M/S is there.....as it has been since Arena, apparently its something "NEW" now, Perks get Ballooned to hell and apparently they do what Attributes did for Skills themselves, ok I get that, now go back and read that again to realize this, Attributes weren't there just for Skills but no matter how coherent a post I make about that It still seems to not click so i wont go there.
Oh your history is gone too, the marketing bs is that you grow into your character, I ask when Have I not been able to do that before? the only "Spreadsheety" bit which I call OPTIONS was the class maker, but apparently birthsigns and specializations is Complex, the joke? Guardian stones
Spell makings Gone, Kaput but you can Dual wield....but you can't combine two different spells, and to combine the same spells you need a perk. other than spells like Frost being streamlined Pretty Frost spell effect with Paralyze sewn in to them, there is 0 improvement aside from it being pretty, me thinks folks shouldn't have griped so hard about colored balls.
Enchantings Back though(YAY) but really are they trying to be funny?
Pickpocketing is a skill again....WHY, ha aha ha ha, you know contrary to the tone of this post I would have actually welcomed Security/Sneak/Pickpocketing being streamlined into one Skill and then from perks you decide what kind of stealthy guy you are, I'll keep my opinions about Pickpocketing as a skill again to myself.
Did I mention Staffs are back? yeah with Animations that no other weapons use, oh and you can kick, but not really since its a finisher, you know all the flash and glare, the effort put into making something thats gonna get boring in a few months but no spears or Crossbows because of time constraints? funny.