I haven't received the magazine yet (actually getting a little worried), and I was wondering what your impression of the game's depth is. Is it purely picturesque, shallow, and simplified? Or do you feel the game will provide enough aspects of the character to really feel accomplishment in building up those skills and always have something to do?

Morrowind's gameplay can go on for 100s of hours, if one is inclined to pursue every skill and attain a mastery of it. I have a fear (based off what I've read in the forum) that the player will feel that he/she can only enjoy the scenery after he/she has finished the quests. It's all about replay value for me.

The skill system seems nothing like the other TES games. Less skills, but no classes. I don't know how attributes work in the new system.
I don't know how deep the game will be, but I think it will be deep and varied enough, and have quite a lot of replay value.

Unfortunately, I've never played any TES game other than Oblivion, but I think it's safe to say it will be like Oblivion's. I loved the balance between character management and actual playtime. Simple enough to be fun but complex enough to have to think. I do not prefer mindless games. I'm a thinker myself.

As far as I see it, the skill system is incomparable, as it focuses almost exclusively on perks to provide for a unique character, as compared to all of the other TES games that used a combination of skills and attributes.

As for depth, BASED PURELY OFF THE ARTICLE, it looks deep, but not that deep. Some unique areas, but the rest feels as if it would be rather generic. Remember, this is based PURELY off of the FEELING that the article gave me, not off of deduction and logical thought of how the game might ACTUALLY be, compared to the simple 7 pages I read.

I wonder if Bethesda will/would release an update to the game for new skills, if enough feedback showed sufficient dislike for the simplified game. I'm guessing it'd be very hard to mod in skills.

Does it really matter?

As long as you have the same freedom you had in previous games the system is irrelevant.

Elaborate on "freedom". Plus, the system is what defines TES games; though not many games have the scale of TES games, any developer can make a 200 sqare mile expanse of forest with no depth to it. I want to feel like my actions are cumulative; I want to have a save game that I'd guard fervently, that if I lost that save I'd have to put in hundreds of hours to get to the level I was before. Becoming powerful in the game should be no simple task.

I'm saying "Shallow" on both accounts, because it seems we're getting just an Oblivion 2, which is a shame. Although, one never knows...

What i mean is, it doesn't matter that Mysticism is no longer in the skill list just as long as you can still learn telekinesis as a spell. You also don't need to choose a class at the start, it's what you do in the game that determines what you are. They are just making the system less bloated by combining stuff.

^ Ah I see. I'm fine with that, as long as long as not too much actual material is cut out. I would've rather had more than less, though.

My impression was something like Oblivion in both size and depth... I am, however, very excited about how the "no classes"-system is going to work, as the classes have always been pretty central in the way TES games worked in the past (my experience of them anyway). To early for me to say if it's good or bad, but I am intrigued none the less