I got back into playing Morrowind again. After about a couple of days, I gathered up a lot of gold to spend it all on training. Eventually, I went to a Medium Armor trainer and trained to 100. After doing this, I kind of felt I was cheating, even though I knew I really wasn't. I had only went to a few Dwemer ruins, a Deadric shrine or two, and then loaded up a lot of valuables; such as Daedric weapons, and lots of jewels from Dwemer ruins. Just by doing that I was able to get enough gold to max one of my major skills and more, thanks to the Creeper merchant buying at full price. No easy difficulty, no console commands, nothing.

I paused and thought to myself "Did I really just max my skill so easily?", I couldn't help but feel disappointed that I became so powerful only by training, and sleeping 24 hours outside to reset Creeper's gold.

Does anyone else still load their hordes of gold into training? I don't think I can anymore. I might just start a new game with a mod to get rid of training, I can't help but feel it makes me ace through the game way too quickly...

For roleplaying sake, I never train more than twice at once, just because it takes hours and is tiring.

I used to wait 24 hours and sell everything to the creeper. Now I just sell my loot in the first town I arrive in. That also keeps me from having a ton of gold early on.

Some things to try, maybe.

You mean do I feel guilty? No!
Given the type of Society the skills available would requre an apprenticeship (training in other words) but to keep from levelling up and maxing out too fast (boring) I do not usually train Major/Minor skills. However I do read a lot of books.
I do train useful miscellaneous skills, sometimes frequently.

Yes, I do feel guilty using trainers, so I never use them.
But I do read every book I can find.

No, not really, I'm still earning the levels, just by earning money instead of xp

I believe you are on the computer so instead of starting a new game, why don't you just use the console and lower you Medium Armour skill to where you want it to, or where it was originally before you trained?

For me, sometimes I do feel guilty, other times I do not. It's not very often I train train train all the time. Also this is not Oblvion, when you train you also use up time as well. I think it's 2 hours. Not real but at least it's not 0 hours to learn like in Oblivion.

Not a damn bit.
And I'm a pretty hardcoe RP'er. I RP that I make a lot of money, and I can pay for it. Pretty simple honestly.

Training is integral to the game. Caius suggests that you train when you first meet him; there are multiple trainers for everything and a somewhat balancing system that requires a certain level of a governing attribute to train. The devs clearly meant players to train. The fact that it can be overdone does not mean that it's an exploit or that it should be a source of shame.

perhaps someone should make a conditional training mod. What I mean by that is that you get a reward for a quest that allows you to train... but that training is one time. Then, if you wanna train again you have to do something else to get that option again.

Or, perhaps allowing training up a certain number of points from a trainer would be a choice that was not so tedious for the player (train up at least 10 times to level and you might not want it to mean 10 quests just to train up one level...).

ST

I roleplay...therefore I train.

I used to take archery lessons in real life. I studied with a teacher and those lessons cost money. My characters who want to better their archery skills do exactly the same thing: they study with a teacher and those lessons cost money. The same goes for all skills. If you want to learn physics or accounting or how to play a piano most people pay somebody to teach them.

Roleplaying, to me, is all about creating a plausible alternate world and taking plausible actions in that world. One of the plausible methods a game character can use to improve a skill is to receive instruction.

I have roleplayed characters who were loners, or who lived far away from civilization. Those characters did not pay trainers, as a rule. But those characters were very specific exceptions.

And why should one feel guilty about using training? If you're not good at something and want to learn how to do it, it seems perfectly reasonable to pay someone to teach you to me, that's what you might do in real life. Now with training, it may be rather easy to raise skills a lot for what is, in comparison to the amount of gold you'll eventually get in the game, a fairly small price, but that's the games fault for being poorly balanced, not the fault of players.

In the end, it's just like alchemy or any other feature of the game that can be abused to make the game very easy. It's just an aspect of gameplay that's there for you to use, and if you don't like it, you don't have to choose to use it, or if you want to use it but don't want to abuse it, you can always impose some limitations on yourself so that you won't end up making the game too easy.

Myself, I do use training, but I don't abuse it, mostly I use it to raise skills that are too low to be used with enough success to rely on them, or if I absolutely insist on getting a higher attribute multiplier this level, so it doesn't unbalance the game too much for me. It's like alchemy, I know it can make my game too easy but I also know I don't have to exploit it for that end.

Selbeth stated the key point... CHOICE! More specifically, player choice. That's what games need, especially roleplaying games. How can anyone roleplay a game where they are forced to follow designer's restrictions? Unless they just happen to have the same roleplaying approach as the designer(s) of course.

I never sleep that long in-game. That's insane. But hey, play how you want.
Do I feel bad about training? No, because I do it only a little bit a day. I also don't use creeper and never even seen a mudcrab merchant. I might've eaten him, mmmm
I also don't strip enemies naked after a raid and sell it all to a merchant.
I just take their shoes mostly. And their weapons and stuff. I have a low strength anyway.
With skill books I actually read the book. I wish time passed in-game when I did. And I've been away from Morrowind for a while doing something else so I forgot the stories in those books lol.

My goal isn't to win Morrowind. It's just to play it and be someone else.
Would take me about a month to be uber and I would feel like I deserved it.
I love Morrowind because there's no rush, and I can do anything (with mods).