To answer your first, it would depend on the context of the game as to why we would go there. But they could really come up with any reason. I mean, why did you go to Solstheim or the Shivering Isles? Because they were there I suppose. Only Shivering Isles was remotely related to Oblivion's storyline.

As for your second thing, I think 2 is a magic number. They could do however many they want, but they have their own work schedule. While the game is about to be marketed, work on DLC. After you start releasing DLC, work on a first expansion. And right after you finish that, Start progress on a second while you think about the next game in the series. Basically, just consider time they have to devote to DLC and the continuation of the series.

Consoles are not a limitation when it comes to expansion size though. There are many games on consoles with huge expansions like that. Smaller things are just easier to churn out, and console gamers will buy them because official DLC is the only thing they have to spice up their games.

@ proditus

I guess personally I've always been somewhat captivated by Akavir and when they first announced Skyrim and the dragons, I, like many others thought of the mysterious continent.

I'm also drawn to intricately complex ideas in stories, games, life; anything really, that can be made to flow into one another sensibly and harmoniously. It's why I'm a big advocate for carrying this whole dragon saga and the forging of a new empire and the beginning of a new era across 2 games and 2 expansions, it's the sheer complexity of it all. It could be an epic saga, spanning two continents and four islands in-between that only those, who actually played all of it, would fully understand and appreciate in its entirety. In many ways that is one of the greatest appeals of this aging Elder Scrolls franchise and the abundance of lore that has grown along the way.

Beyond all that, it would just make plain sense(depending on how they choose to end Skyrim) that the people of Tamriel would want to retaliate against the dragons.

I am not saying that they are a limitation from the hardware point of view. An expansion on a disk could be made to work just fine. My question is will they do a large expansion with its own map section, main quest, multiple sidequests, or will they decide that more smaller expansions is the way to go. Personally, I think that Skyrim would be better if if were on multiple DVDs, then space would not be as much of a concern as how much quality content they can produce, but it appears that they are limiting themselve to avoid multiple disks on the Xbox 360 (PS3 has Blu-ray and PC users almost expect multiple disks now). Fallout 3 may not be a good example, but as I said I remember a comment where they said that Shivering Isles was too big and that they would not do a DLC of that size again. I think that we have to at least consider the possibility that they will choose 3-5 mini-expansions sized well for DLC (add a new town on the border with a three quest chain and two sidequests + some new items/spells/perks? for example) over doing a new region like Shivering Isles or Solstheim in a boxed expansion.

I'd rather have a massive expansion that heads toward Akavir.

I could really see them doing an island of Akavir. It would be a really fresh change.

I think you should consider Atmora and especially Roscrea as possible locations for expansions, and not just other Tamrielic provinces.

I should say that the flat, barren, desolate, arctic tundra (as I imagine it) of Atmora would make for some terrain that'd be interestingly different from the mountainous, forested landscapes of Skyrim. I'd be in favour of some sort of an archeological expedition there to rediscover some ancient ruins of proto-nord/human settlements.

If not Atmora, then Roscrea could be styled as a Solstheim-style island territory. And if not those two... well, I'd be greatly in favour of visiting Daggerfall, and perhaps seeing some kind of Nordic viking-styled expansionism into Daggerfall as has occurred numerously in the past. By that, I mean raiding parties and poorly organised Nordic armies preying on vulnerably and weakly defended Breton towns of farmers and wizards, defended by loose coalitions of Breton, Redguard and Orsimer mercenaries banded together to face the ever-present threat of Nordic barbarians to the east.

Edit: terrible lapses in spelling, grammar and general coherence removed :facepalm:

Maybe for an expansion, they could add a new cult that appears in Skyrim. Giving loads of new quests.

Oh, don't sweat it...the "Expand or die" subtitle had me thinking more along the lines of a Henry VIII roleplay than game add-ons.

Something SI Size. A warm, green, river-dotted place wouldn't hurt anyone.

I was surprised that no one had suggested Atmora yet. Why did everyone assume that the game would expand east, when Skyrim is on the northern side of Tamriel? Not only is Atmora north of Skyrim, it is the home of the Nords ancestors.

Going based on past "large" expansions, Solsteim was a contested area between Nords and Dunmer for ages, just being colonized by the East Emprire company which was stationed in Vvardenfell. Sheogorath's realm was part of oblivion, which was the driving force in Oblivion. Akavir has nothing to do, lore wise, with what is happening in Skyrim. The game focuses entirely on ancient Nordic culture, so having an expansion based on the Nords trying to reconnect with their ancient roots would make a lot of sense, as would your suggestion of Nordic raiding parties using the power of Dragon Shouts (a driving force in the game) would also make sense.

I had assumed that Atmora was a myth as far as the lore goes. But you were right that it should have been in my considerations. A myth in a video game is just potential for content. It would be pretty groundbreaking as the first expansion to leave Tamriel, as would Akavir. I wouldn't like to see it mainly because I'm not sure how different Atmora is from Skyrim. Being further north and all, it just leads me to assume that they'd be exactly the same, except Atmora wouldn't have the green regions to the south

I am still against an Akavir expansion as well. They could tie it in with dragons, so I wouldn't go so far as to say Skyrim and Akavir are unrelated. But I just don't think an expansion could do Akavir justice. Keep in mind that Akavir is a continent, not a single province. If Akavir were to be in a game grouped with Skyrim, it would have to me much larger than the default game in comparison.

Personal desire: Anyone curious as to what Pyandonea looks like? I think an expansion to the nice sunlit beaches and fresh oceans would be a nice departure from Skyrim. But that's all the way in the land of Never Gonna Happen.

Main reason to go east is to show a new part of Morrowind as you say, it would be popular and also have a different terrain because of the sea to the east it's easy to limit the size.

We can assume the new DLC will be the size of fallout DLC this is the size Bethesda will focus on as they can be released with some moths between to keep the interest up.
Point lookout had a pretty decent size but was significant smaller than SI.

It would be nice if they did a large expansion divided up into episodes.

I suppose I didn't consider Atmora because I initially thought it would just be a boring arctic plane of nothing, but I suppose we don't actually know that much about Atmora. Do men / Nords still live there?

Sorry, but Morrowind is... changed. Badly.

Yeah, It's just shiny molten rock by now...with a Dunmer tribe that feeds solely on human flesh!