» Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:46 am I have come to my own conclusion about attributes in this game. I believe that all attributes/skills/what have you that are based on a point or number system are unnecessary and unacceptable in a modern day gaming environment. The only reason why such systems were invented in the first place was due to technological limitations with the earliest of role playing games. When games first came out, they was no feasible way of making a realistic combat system. Creators could not portray how a real fighter would be wounded by a slash to the arm, or how a mage would be burnt by a fireball. Likewise, there was no way of illustrating how you character would learn new things and become better at certain things. The technology of these early games wasn't advanced enough to realistically portray how a thief would learn how to lockpick better, or how a warrior would learn a new type of block with his shield. The attribute/skill system was created to give a sense of realism to the role playing genre, which was and still is the most complicated genre for the player. By relegating such complexities to numbers and statistics, there was now a way to make a video game that contained these elements.
However, technology has come a long way since the first RPGs. While it may not be at the highest possible level of realism just yet, games can now realistically portray things such as combat and sneaking. Modern FPSs such as Red Orchestra 2 have systems which portray gunshot wounds to certain body areas, rather than having a HP number to represent such a complex system. Some games display a knight's armor being systematically damaged and chipped away rather than relegating that to a "armor condition" statistic. Skyrim is moving in a progressive and modern direction. In my opinion, the developers could have done much more to "update" it than what they have done. And while this is just pure speculation, I would guess that the developers wanted to make many new changes but decided against it solely because it would have garnered a negative response from the fanbase.
Skyrim has done much to modernize the TES series. By removing attributes and replacing them with perks, they have exemplified how a real person might learn something. For example, lets say I take up a sword fighting class. I wouldn't be very good against my first opponents, but as the class goes on, would I just start hurting my opponent more and more (doing more damage)? Or would I learn new moves and try new ways of attacking him? Perks that allow the player to use new moves and attacks are so much more realistic than just doing more damage over time. And from this example, we can also see that the entire system of leveling is quite ridiculous. Going back to the sword fighting example, after learning a bunch of new stuff, would I one day just "level up" and suddenly be so much better all at once? It doesn't make any sense. The entire system is kind of stupid if you really think about it.
I've seen many people say that attributes allow more customization and that their removal is somehow going to limit their character. I don't even understand how people are coming to this conclusion. It is just so out and out wrong it seems that people must be purposely ignoring the truth. Having "perks" instead of just numbers allows a player to choose how he wants his character to fight, sneak, cast spells etc. Before, the only way you could "customize" your character was by making him stronger with a sword, or more powerful with a spell. Now, you can define your character by how he fights. I could make a "defensive" character who specializes in counter attacks, and I could have him learn the two handed spell perk to make his defensive magic more powerful. The perk system allows for much more customization than just "My character is powerful with destruction magic. He is not good at using an axe. He is good at wearing light armor."
I think that the reason why lots of people are against having no numbers or attributes is because they associate such things with the RPG genre, when, in fact, there is no basis for such associations. RPG stands for role playing game. It means that you take on the role of a character and you decide their actions and maneuvers, either completely or partially. There is no need for pointless numbers or statistics. In fact, the closer an RPG is to real life, the better it will be because it allows the player to associate himself more with his character.
I'm not going to comment on the argument that "Skyrim is being dumbed down and streamlined for casual gamers and console players." because it's not worth my time arguing with troll or stupid people. Because those are the only two types of people that could believe such a thing. And please don't say that "TES isn't realistic there's magic and dragons." There is something called suspension of disbelief. It means that I am willing to accept that in this universe there are magical dragons and creatures, but I am not going to accept a useless and unrealistic system based on numbers when there is no real reason to have such a system. I realize that many of these types of threads have been made before. I realize that the moderators of these forums may not be happy with me making another one of those threads. However, I have been thinking about these ideas for a long time, and I believe that I have written some genuinely new information that can hopefully help some other people get a better idea about having no attributes and about Skyrim in general.
And yes, I realize that there are actually 3 attributes in Skyrim, but the system is so drastically different and it would be much harder to say "having no attributes except for 3".
