and One Tamriel is kinda to blame too.
Let me explain (story time! :P)
I've played this game off and on since it came out. I never got a max level char but i had a 36 pet sorc at one point and multiple level 20's. I guess i got stuck doing to many alts and never really doing anything with them lol.
Through it all i've been subbed when i play (i believe if a game is worth playing its worth paying for). In all that, though, i never played the dlcs. I always figured they (and their gear) were "endgame" and just kept running through opening areas trying different stuff.
So i quit for awhile (again) a couple months before One Tamriel hit. I heard about the whole scaling world thing and it piqued my interest a little, but i didn't immediately jump back in.
Until last week.
A little better than a week ago i started up again and decided to do something different. Always before i half-rp'ed a kinda of "good guy" savior type. I played a sorc more than expected and liked the fantasy of a templar and dragon knight. I kept "harm innocents" turned off. Stole only sparingly. Left every npc alive when given the option at the end of quests etc. I guess i was just a swell fellow.
Enter now. I started a stam nightblade with the intention on being none of that lol. I cleared khanarthi's roost and then, for the heck of it, went straight to the gold coast at level 8. Friggen EIGHT. I initially only wanted to go there to unlock blade of woe for giggles because i'd heard so much about it.
So... by the time i left gold coast i was level 13 and a changed elf.
I just hit 100 innocents murdered on my achievements.
I go into new towns looking for what houses i can break into, kill the occupants and steal anything of value (green or better treasure, recipes/motiffs, gear, etc.)
All those quest people i left alive... from vampire raising fathers to veiled heritance troublemakers (did i mention i went to auridon next? :P)... yea, i let em talk a bit before i knife em.
I used to walk into cities and see all the npcs around and think "wow, look how alive these towns are!".
Now i walk in and see all those white "auras" and think "wow, look at all these wonderful targets!"
The dark brotherhood names me "Assassin" now (i broke past "initiate" just recently) and i am somehow a horrible person over what i once was.
And i'm having a TON of fun because of it >:-)
Anyway, just wanted to post my little story. A post or two over the last week helped me settle on a stamblade to try out for the first real time and this is my "update" of sorts lmao.
Cheers everyone, good times

(p.s. cloak of shadows + blade of woe = peanut butter and chocolate. They go together so... so well :P)