There is something I really want to see in Skyrim and the future Elder Scrolls. That is more options available for character growth and how you can affect the world in which you live in as that character.

The moment your character is released or escapes to freedom from his or her captivity as a prisoner your reputation is at your discretion. I've played through Oblivion and Morrowind more times than I can remember. One of the things you do in the Elder Scrolls is live as another person in another world. The choices available to you in these games are vast but with certain limitations. If you choose to play as "the knight in shining armor" or the "good guy" you lose out on a lot of content and benefits. Now I usually do play as a character whose ambitions for gold, power and possession outweigh my desire to be a good person in the games. -But that is because I don't feel the initiative to be good. If I play as a noble character whose deeply rooted in honor and chivalry I will not reap the same benefits as I would if I had no morality.

The Thieves guild and the Dark Brotherhood are great. I absolutely love them to death. Those two guilds contained some of the most wonderful, gripping and thought provoking story lines. But they create an unbalanced atmosphere in the game to some extent. I would like to see change in Skyrim. What I would like to see is the opportunity to play Skyrim and future Elder Scrolls games as a truly noble character. A character who is not in any way corruptible that will strike down evil where it is found. Now as everybody knows, you can do this to some extent in Oblivion. You are propositioned for service to the Dark Brotherhood by Lucien Lachance if you kill anyone who does not attack you on sight. -Even if that character you killed is truly evil. And then you get the note from the Dark Brotherhood. This is changed in Skyrim apparently, I do know that, but while you do have a choice to just kill nearly anyone you choose, killing Lucien Lachance for honor and justice was an empty feeling. And you cannot kill or arrest Gray Fox of the thieves guild, even though he is in charge of an organization which plagues the people of Tamriel.

I have a basic outline for quest designs, just so you can have some idea of how my ideas would work...
What I would like to see is two guilds that you can join if you do not want to be a thief or an assassin. In the fight against the thieves I think you should be able to join the guards and become a Ranger perhaps. An agent for good who will arrest the Gray Fox once and for all to utterly dismantle and destroy the thieves guild. Following the arrest, eventual execution of the Gray Fox and demise of the thieves guild, you are chosen to become a Knight of the Realm by the Imperial Council. And this is when the quest line for battling the Dark Brotherhood and Sithis begins. Through the trials and tribulations you are faced with incredibly poignant questions about how to pursue the entirely evil people. The decisions you make will change the world from the shadows out. If you make mistakes in your tactics of pursuit, choices of ethics and morality and what you do when you reach the final missions will affect the rest of your time in the game. Will you live? Will you die? Will you be hunted the rest of your life? Will you make mistakes that cost innocents and leaders who shape the world to die? You see, being a "good" character does not mean the game becomes less interesting. You can experience tough choices that could potentially be very difficult to make.

And what about the Fighters(Companions) Guild and the Mages(College of Winterhold) Guild? I think you should have a choices to be a member of a corrupt mercenary group for hire that has no qualms about who gives the mission or what the mission is and this would counter the Fighters Guild and perhaps even cause trouble with the guards and other factions as well. I believe that necromancy, while it is a crime against nature and humanity, should also be available with their own quest lines that contain endings which are reflected in the rest of the world.

My point is this: The Dark Brotherhood and The Thieves guild as well as all the others have so much potential that they really do deserve to have an opposition worthy of them available to the player. All the different factions in The Elder Scrolls deserve this. I want to see the game from every point available. Bethesda does amazing work in their games. Perhaps this current generation of gaming consoles are not powerful enough to support these ideas, the mediums of storage can not hold all the extra content(Which would more than double the size of quest content), developmental restriction such as money, time and technology do not allow for a more open world as I would like to see in the future. In Skyrim many steps have been taken to implement some of these ideas I've shared and I love it. I think radiant story is an excellent tool constructed for more freedom for the player. Todd and his entire team at Bethesda are headed in the direction I would like to see and I think that's wonderful.

I would like to have quest related story lines that oppose current factions and balance the world of Skyrim and future renditions of the Elder Scrolls.

How you arrive to your destiny and what your reputation is, should be at the total and complete discretion of the player.

What do you think?

-Uhlan

I think a TL;DR paraphrase is in order here.

Wall of text aside, The imperial legion is a joinable faction this time around, maybe you can be some "righteous" gameplay apart from the usual morally evil factions.

cool.