Is Skyrim a 'dumbed down casual game'?

Compared to Oblivion, yes it a casual game

I Do believe so. I mean i loved skyrim a lot as well as the fallout series but i played Skyrim on Legendary and i still felt it was to easy. I do want a challenge but no a complicated game that requires to do lots of things at the same time. I liked Oblivion but i did not like the way the mechanics worked compared to sky rim. Yes the game has been dumbed down be cause know a days their are mostly fps (COD and Boyfriend). I mean when i played Metal Gear Solid, it was unlike any game i had played and loved it a lot. Played it on big boss hard my first time and was definitely a challenge. MGS is not a casual game as it is somethings complicated but i do wish sky rim could sometimes be like that. But can't hate on sky rim to much as i loved the game but wish was a bit more challenge, better combat, and add some aspects of fallout. But yeah i fell it was kind of dumbed down compared to oblivion but hey games do change over time. This is my opinion and it is not at all right but this is what i feel.

I haven't played the other Elder Scrolls games (yet) so I can't say how it compares to those, but if you're a serious hardcore PC gamer, yeah, Skyrim is probably a vacation. If you're the kind of person who usually plays Candy Crush and Lego games, Skyrim's impossible (I have friends who won't even try, no matter how great I say it is, or how they can start at the easiest setting). But I don't know if anyone can "casually" commit 300+ hours to a game (or in my case 800+). I played Thief in a couple days. Assassin's Creed II in a week. Red Dead Redemption in a month. I'd say those were casual. I've been playing Skyrim for over a year. It's a "serious" relationship. Lol

But I'm not a PC gamer (other than Minecraft and a few games like that), I'm mostly on PS3. I've never played an MMORPG like WoW. I've played console versions of Bioshock, inFAMOUS, etc, and I found Skyrim a challenge -- at least, at first. Then I started upping the difficulty, and really it's just more fun than difficult, now. The dungeon "puzzles" are dumb as sh** but I've read they were designed to keep draugr in, not necessarily keep people out. Whatever. Most of the challenge, let's be honest, is in working around all the bugs. I've had to spend as much time reading wikis and forum posts, and reloading, as I spent actually playing the game. For a lot of people, most of the fun is in the mods.