Thaurin
SasqWatch
I assume this "graphics thing" is a thing one simply gets used to.
I learned driving in a BMW. Dream car, great to work with. Having to drive a much older and much less good car of my parents after that, it was like going back in history - or from a luxury flat into a farmer's house.
Yes, it is. I used to be much more tolerant of blocky, pixelated graphics. Obviously, since there was nothing else. A game like 11th Hour (the better-looking sequel to 7th Guest) was absolutely cutting edge in 1995, but it used video stored on CD-ROM (what is this? CD's for the computer? Woah!). It can now easily be done more beautifully in real-time. I thought DooM was the most realistic 3D I had ever seen back when it came out. It doesn't help that I do my gaming on the 37" LCD TV screen in the living room these days, of course.
I also think it's getting harder and harder to impress me in other areas. The amount of stuff that comes out is just huge compared to then. We're spoiled. However, I was playing on Dungeon Siege 3 on Xbox 360 recently and was reminded again that this level of graphics is pretty much "enough." Compared to PS2 and original Xbox, where character models were still a bit too blocky, textures too blurry and pixel shaders too simplistic.
So yes, I think Skyrim is an improvement over Oblivion graphics-wise so far. And graphics have reached a comfortable level, too. Easy on the eyes and without a pressing need to dramatically improve more. That's one reason why PC graphics are not progressing very fast any more.