I think it would be a nice element to run a town. It could work the same way as owning a house. A quest line, but that could be more interesting.

The people are complaining about their mayor/leader...
It's time for an election...
Will you perform errands to get their vote?
Even give some money?
Perform dirty deeds?
Or will you just murder the mayor and take the town by force!

I could imagine the fun involved. You start off with a run down town, with deprived people. You start quests to make it better. New houses, new shops, getting a smithy going. Eventually, you even work up to a new church (in the name of the God you want). Even more, you get the place big enough for guilds to set up shop. But all is not all cotton candy. Goblins, and barbarians routinely attack the town. You must to save your town or hope the guards can hold them off. (Kinda like Shivering Isles after completion) You can build a wall, starting from logs all the way up to steel reinforced stone. So much could be done.

I think it would be awesome, how about you? Inb4 "omg sim city, i want detailed expl0r4t1on omgz!"

Running a town is a full time job. You can't really be an adventurer and a Lord at the same time. Although, it'd be awesome if the PC could place someone loyal to them as ruler of the township and you could tell them how you'd prefer to have the town run.

EDIT: And also have there be a chance that after a while that person would betray the PC, then you could have them assassinated and replaced.

Love this idea.

Highly doubt it's going to show up in the vanilla game.

We can only hope.

Morrowind's Bloodstone expansion allowed you to customize and build a mining colony, which with a few town-decision choices added at the end would be a fun way to incorporate "running" a town in Skyrim

Personally, I don't much care for the idea :shrug:

Maybe in real life. In a game, you could make it as simple as you wanted.

Ummmm..... This is NOT Tropico.

By the logic of this thread's subtitle, we'll actually get no houses, much less a town. After all, in Morrowind we could have strongholds and run the town of Raven Rock. In Oblivion we just got to delve into the simple world of real estate. In Skyrim, we'll be forced to live on our own, in the wilderness, with nothing to eat but the next random encounter wolf.

+1

...I just want a library.

it would be similar to a guild. you own it but have someone else in charge

OMG exploration survival, beards meat mead halls omgzorz?

love this idea. if its done properly

I'm with you on that! Houses have always been pretty much places for me to keep my books.

Bookshelf-containers that will stand my books up, thus saving me hours of trying to position them. Yesss..

Go a step further. Become King of Morrowind Skyrim!

'RUN' a town? No.
'BUILD' a town and 'HELP' run a town? Yes.

A real possibility for the end of the game. I wouldn't doubt it since it has been confirmed that you can play after completing the main quest which means you don't die, leaving you, the Dragon born, savior of the world to rule, like the Septim dynasty after the last time the dragons were banished.