I know it's not fitting TES at all, but what if there was a Survival Mode? You had to kill as many trolls or lichs without dying. It's silly, but the possibility is always there. TES is always open for change...

It would be... curious. Maybe with the enchanced combat even fun. But... I don't know what to say. xD

I'm thinking a good application of this would be either an arena where you battle unending waves of enemies until you are overcome, or else quests to return with so-and-so many ogre heads.

My predictions: There will assuredly be several "bring my twenty wolf pelts!" type quests in Skyrim. They're a bit of an RPG staple. As for a survival arena, you're probably going to have to turn to modders.

could be a part of the arena, given there is an arena in skyrim. i sure hope there is!

The Skyrim freedome fighter leader may be like for any animal pelt I will pay you we need the leather and warmth. And then you come back with a packhorse laden with furs he will pay you for each fur for each type of fur.

Now THAT is a good idea.

In the arena, sure.
Otherwise, no.

Tip to OP: Survival mode is maybe the wrong word for this thread. It can easily be confused with the need to drink/eat/sleep.

If there is a "hardcoe/survival" mode in Skyrim my guess is that it will be more along the lines of New Vegas "hardcoe mode," that is to say, more about role-play immersion eating/drinking/sleeping, smaller inventory, etc., as opposed to the various FPS/Diablo2 hardcoe mode where you can't save your game. Since cooking is one of crafting skills, I suspect that eating hunger, thirst and sleep deprivation will be incorporated in Skyrim in some way.

There would also likely be a separate difficulty slider that you can use to adjust combat difficulty, as the difficulty setting is separate from hardcoe/normal in New Vegas.

I think he meant survival more in the spirit of Left 4 Dead survival mode where you face tougher and tougher opponents until they overtake you.