We all know how most of Bethesda's titles roll out: main release, with occasional bugfix updates, a few DLC, and then they move on. No complaints here, it's fairly standard stuff for a game development company. There are limits to how much time and work can be put into a title, simple as that. Maybe there's a major issue or bug that needs work for the product to be up to snuff, but it's ideal to focus on new content being released with a pricetag.

Well, I got back to playing the new updated Skyrim. I'm redoing a lot of the story for dat delicious nostolgia, but I'm also running into all the moments in quests where I wish there had been options. Fans of Skyrim and Fallout know what I'm talking about when I say there are decisions that feel restrictive. Yeah, yeah, war never changes, but CAN I GET A LITTLE DIPLOMACY IN HERE? Not anything crazy, but like when you're running the Stormcloak quests and have to deliver the axe to Bulgruuf. Bulgruuf is an awesome character, you run into him numerous times and one of my favorite Jarls in the game, and he seems genuinely disappointed in you when you help assault his city. It's a real shame you couldn't be a little more persuasive in helping the rebellion, they lost a perfect opportunity for a high speech skill route ("We'll join up with High Rock, join the fight against the Dominion. I'm the [censored] Dovahkiin, b****!"). All that would change in terms of game files is Bulgruuf stays Jarl, there is no battle for it, and you add a handful of dialog changes for some Whiterun npcs.

There are so many games on Steam working through their beta phases on pre-purchases, and MMOs charging monthly fees for future content. I would not hesitate to pay $3 to $5 a month ($36-60 yearly) subscription to have a few of the developers stick around to impliment small edits and additions. They coordinate the relavent writers, voice actors, artists, lore freaks, etc for an extra layer of polish to the world most of us will be dedicating hundreds of hours to exploring. The modding community adds plenty of new options and items, but they can't seamlessly add middle paths to pre-existing content, or update core gameplay like Bethesda could.

Edit: added last sentence in 2nd paragraph.