No Classes in Skyrim, Bethesda Explains

Kenneth Richardson February 7, 2011 8:00 PM EST

So, an absolute staple of the Elder Scrolls series, and of the many games that have originated from it, have been classes. Just after choosing your character’s name, lineage and appearance, you would choose your class: Mage, rogue, warrior, the list goes on. In general, these only assigned bonuses to a certain set of skills and abilities. So, what kind of game would the Elder Scrolls be if we didn’t pick out classes? We’ll find out when Skyrim drops, Designer Todd Howard explains:

“What we found in Oblivion – you start the game, you pick your race and you play for a while. Our intent was: you played for a while, you got to figure out some skills, and then depending on how you play… one of the characters asks you, ‘Okay, what kind of class do you want to be? Here’s my recommendation based on how you’ve been playing. And sort of our thought process was, what if that guy never asked that? I was perfectly happy right before then, ya know, I was just playing the game and skills were going up, so we just got rid of that. You just play, and your skills go up as you play and the higher your skill, the more it affects your leveling. So it’s a really, really nice elegant system that kind of self-balances itself.”

This is truly a very interesting concept. The Fallout series has been doing phenomenally without the use of classes, instead attributing perks as rewards for getting stronger. This tidbit makes me even more excited about the game, though it doesn’t bring the November 11th launch date any closer. Funny how that works, huh? The Elder Scrolls V will be available for HD consoles and the PC. Hit the break for more on this rather controversial topic from Mr. Howard.

[Euro Gamer]

“What we found in Oblivion is people would play, and even though they played for a half hour and then they picked their class, it’s still – in the scheme of the games we make – not enough time to really understand all the skills and how they work. So people would play, and the general pattern would be they’d play for like, three hours and then ‘oh I picked the wrong skills, I’m going to start over’They weren’t necessarily upset about that, but to us, someone who’s making a game you’re like… ‘is there a way we can solve that? Is there a better way of doing it?’ And we think this is it.”