Oh, it was. All the more so for how much he seemingly enjoyed it. :|

That wouldn't have anything to do with the guy hanging out in the noble area of the Redoran compound in Vivec, would it? (I think it's Redoran) Mr. I'm writing a play, please act for me? or something along those lines.

I like how certain things in the game change depending on what gender you are. There's that guy hanging outside one of the smaller towns in Morrowind. If you're female, he asks you for a kiss. If you're male, he attacks you if you don't give him x sum of money.

Wait, that brigand on the bridge? That guy DESTROYED me on my first playthrough.

In Oblivion, there's a quest involving a group of female murderers who seduce men in a remote cabin and then rob and kill them. If you're male, they make you a mark, and you infiltrate and take them down. If you're female, they ask you to join them and you infiltrate and take them down. Which is stupid, you should have been able to join them for real.

I've yet to meet the guy as a male so I'm not sure how tough he is yet. My male character is still in Bamora. Not doing much with him though. I made him to see what it was like playing through as a male; made him Dunmer to see if everyone still called me 'outlander' all the time. Yes they do.

I'm positive that people react to you based on your race in Oblivion, so I would assume it'll be the same or better in Skyrim. Hopefully more gender-unique quests, those increase replayability.

Yeah. I know the beast races are slave races in Morrowind so they may not get as good initial reactions but I think they get better ones amongst either other. I'd have to check. I know my khajits do better talking to other Khajit's than my other characters, but the two of them also have fair personalities so it's not really even.

I nearly always choose the sign of the lady when I start a new character, because the personality and endurance boost is really handy. I think two of my other characters (I have 5 or 6) have the signs of the Ritual and one of the Steed. I think my argonian has the sign of the steed because she can move darn fast, which is great when diving for pearls early game so underwater things don't kill you. Slaughter fish are *almost* as bad as cliff-racers some times. Well, actually perhaps not. They are a -distant- second though.

Actually, speaking of racial characteristics, I really, really hope that they get a better voice for female elves in Skyrim (I think they all use the same voice set) because... their grunts and battle cries sound like some kind of wounded animal, just hideous and extremely jarring to hear.

Morrowind didn't have any picks. You got what you got and I think it was more or less the same no matter who or what you were. Saves time in character creation though.

I know gender has an effect on characters that varies per race but I never figured that out until later in the game. It explains why my argonian has abysmal personality (I think she started at 35), the males have higher personality than the females. Not sure what the females have. Never payed enough attention. They might be faster or have more endurace or something. Blah. Later in the game it's pretty much negligable anyway.

Are you aware that creating your character in Oblivion can take upwards of an hour, if not longer? :p

And the way Skyrim is boasting even more customizability... yeah. I don't mind, though, I like having my character look exactly how I want them to. You can always skip past it, since the game's 1st-person anyway, it won't matter that much.

I spend at least that amount of time anyway, often deciding between two slightly unsatisfactory options. Maybe it will be quicker for me if stuff looks good :D.

Well, on the other hand, the actual RPG character creation aspect seems really streamlined (only 3 stats, no major/minor skills) so it might pick up some of the slack with the added options in the aesthetic aspect.

I'd also like to see some gender-specfic armour.

I'd be okay with that, as long as it isn't super-heavy walking-fortress platemail for guys and steel bikinis for girls.

Oh, and on the subject of armor, I hope clothes are more like in Morrowind. I hated not being able to wear clothes under my armor in Oblivion.

And That it'll be illegal to run around in your undies! I loved killing guards like that. It was hillarious.

Something else kind of cool would be magical tattoos, I think. Maybe they'd have to be visible to function, so you couldn't stack up clothes and armor on top of them?

But, I'm just musing and speculating at this point. I'm out of actual news to share. :p

Depends on what the magical tats do. I mean would it just be like an enchanted item? I'd also like to see some glove like items... Sort of like the wrist irons. My wrist irons caused me to shock people.