Allow me to start off by saying that I have had an absolute blast playing Skyrim with close to 90 hours played so far and no intention of stopping anytime soon. I have been looking through this forum and seeing a TON of negative feedback for this game and in writing this I wanted to steer clear of bashing a game I love in favor of giving my observation of what I feel is the biggest flaw in the game (from an RP perspective): the lack of the NPCs responding to my growing power and my inability to do anything about it.

Now, I don't mean soldiers responding with cute names for you relating to the civil war quest line or events in the main quest. I mean full blown adoration, fear, or respect. I happened to complete the main quest, civil war, and about 75% of the Daedric quests before making my way to the Companions. There is no reason I should walk in there in a full set of legendary enchanted Daedric armor and a glowing Ebony Axe (for cosmetic reasons) and be told I have to prove myself by some guy named Skjor wearing a bunny rabbit vest with an iron weapon. How about I burn this entire building down simply by sitting my happy ass in a chair and letting my armor ignite the mighty hall of Jorrvaskr? Did I just save the world while you were sitting here getting drunk and hoping I would walk in the front door to advance your meager digital existence? Yes.

Yet after plunging my axe through every member of the great hall and watching them "Tebow" on the ground for 5-10 seconds before standing back up with full health it became perfectly clear to me: they don't respect me because I can't do crap to them! I understand why Bethesda would want keep vital characters alive in order to advance their respective storyline and subsequently my game (especially with a lunatic axe murderer like myself running around Skyrim) but it was a major disappoint to walk out of Jorrvaskr with my tail between my legs (pun intended).

My point is that I would LOVE a feature that allowed me to kill anyone (fine fine, not the children) regardless of their relation to the games quests. Maybe a feature like hardcoe mode in NV? Just shoot me a warning that I will destroy said storyline by killing said NPC and I will happily acknowledge and proceed to separate his/her head from their shoulders. For a game that has done so much to craft a masterful world of seemingly untold potential, the lack of this really hurts the RP experience for ME.

So, please makers of my favorite console RPG to date, allow me to feel like I really am this once in a lifetime hero/villain you have spent hours convincing me that I am by allowing me to decimate your entire game world and undermine six years of your hard work by slaughtering NPCs before I get the chance to hear their voice actor at work.