Gameplay. What comes to your mind when you hear that word? Perhaps balance, fluidity and a strong environment that allows the mind to be immersed in a world suspending all disbelief. A solid storyline, perhaps good writing mean the most to you personally.

Whatever parts of a game deserve your appraisal when playing them, those parts may or may might not translate well from one game to the next. However, some elements of a game can be consistently used over and over in different genres. Whatever the case, please post what game elements from other games you would most like to see incorporated into Skyrim, even if the chances of seeing those elements actually incorporated are near zero.

I made a thread like this for Oblivion back when it was being developed and had some fun with it. I will start off listing several games and memorable elements:

Super Metroid. A classic game that still holds it's value today as one of the best side scrolling games ever made. Some of the elements in this game that made it great are:

• Mystery. Never underestimate the power of leaving something a mystery. Almost no real storyline is given in this game, no dialogue and nothing that communicated to Samus the natural and unnatural environments that she was exploring. The mysterious feeling of venturing deep within the planet without knowing what's around the next corner is something that few games I know of have been able to recreate.
  
  This "method of mystery" is used in books too. I especially liked how J.R.R. Tolkien consistently left certain environmental details out and allowed the imagination to wonder. Humans are naturally inquisitive (one of the key characteristics separating us from animals) and games can use this to their advantage. Create questions that don't have a quick answer. Leave details out or muddy them in myth.
  
  
• Utility. Another great element here that could arguably put SM in the role play category are the items and suit upgrades that Samus finds throughout her journey. Each item played an important role in utility and had a purpose. While I applaud the use of clutter and items that are mundane, utility should still take a precedence when creating swords or bows or what have you. I believe this element, where Samus had items that are tangibly useful (each one), and different from one another really made exploration worth it. It was the reward of progress, you became more useful. Skyrim could learn from this, and especially if there are puzzles involved (see my sig for puzzle discussion).

Zelda Series. A timeless genre that has one of the highest rated games in history (Ocarina of Time).

• Utility. Again with utility items. Zelda and Super Metroid share this element together, but Zelda brings it to the realm of fantasy and does a superb job of creating items that can be used in puzzles and game play throughout Link's journey. A Link to the Past has many more utility items than it's predecessor OoT.
  
  
• Puzzles. I will briefly point out that games with puzzles like Zelda are consistently enjoyable (if done well like this series). People enjoy solving things, and then being rewarded for their accomplishment. I very much hope to see this game play mechanic added in depth to Skyrim to break up the dungeon crawling and the feeling that you are some sort of anoited judge sent to destroy all badness in every cave.
  
  
• Believable class. This one is hard to describe, but I feel like games that try to alienate game-play into different "crossroads" where you need to be either a person who uses a bow or not, a person who uses a sword or not, a person who uses magic or not is really one of the most unrealistic and dubious elements that game developers feel they need to follow. In reality, like Link, a person would use a bow and a sword. There would be a time to use magic, a time to use a sword and a bow. You needn't be forced into a special path of single mindedness.

Final Fantasy 7. A game that was a huge leap forward in RPG games in the western world. Before FF7 rpg fans in general were a small minority. FF7 helped put viable rpgs on the map and introduced many to the genre.

• Magic System. The magic system in FF7 is one of the most favorable mentions from the game. It was innovative, interesting and worked well in the style of the game (turn based attacks). The way it worked is most weapons and armor you found had sort of gem "slots" where you could put individual magic moves (anything you can think of) into those slots and then use them in battle. The magic itself was contained in an orb called Materia and you could level each orb up over long periods of time and eventually produce more. This led to complex battle systems where you could essentially prescribe each character their own class depending on what orbs you gave them (I believe it was possible to have many on one character, like 10 or so).
  
  I'm not sure exactly how a system like this could work in Skyrim, but adding soul gems to socketable weapons would be an interesting way to enchant them. Better yet, leveling up soul gems sounds like some fun potential game play.
  
  
• Wow Effect. Let me explain, there are only a couple games I can think of that produced this effect with me. The way it works is like this: The game begins and you already have an idea of how deep the game is. It looks deep, feels deep. No surprises expected. But then, after 20 hours of gameplay the game reveals how much you have actually accomplished and it's like saying "surprise! you haven't even started until now!".
  
  The moment that effect happens in FF7 is when you first leave Midgar and realize while walking on the over world that you just began for real, and you haven't hardly accomplished anything yet. It's a cool feeling. The other games that gave this feeling were: Zelda: A link to the past, when you enter Dark World; Zelda: OoT when you reach grown up stage; Red Dead Redemption when you finally make it to Mexico. I'm not sure how Skyrim would incorporate this, but if the main quest is say 80 hours instead of 20 it could produce this effect.

Mass Effect. Arguably one of the best Scifi games ever created. This Space Opera transcends most gaming quirks when it comes to writing and handles the genre especially well for a game.

• Tangible People. Everywhere I went in Mass Effect (one and two) I felt like the people really existed. You didn't necessarily get involved with every NPC walking around, but when you could talk to them they felt like real persons. The most tangible people in the game are of course your crew and the dialogue was well written. I felt emotionally attached to my companions, and I felt like my decisions and actions towards them had social ramifications. I suppose the element I'm trying to describe is a strong social environment where 'the dice' is not only hidden from you, but your not really trying to find it either because you don't need to outwit the system to prosper. It's fluid and natural, something I think was lacking with most NPCs in Oblivion.
  
  
• Believable Power. Without giving too much of the game away I will say that in this game you eventually atain some rank and status with both the army and the rulling parties. I felt strong, important, but for the right reasons. I wasn't a god to everyone. I wasn't a super human. I was just well placed, well educated and well endowed with power of rank and authority. I feel like this is the best way to make somebody feel powerful, and it feels more natural too.

tl:dr: post about what game play mechanics you enjoyed most from other games, and how you'd like to see them in Skyrim.

I had a dream that Samus got a much needed reboot after Bungie acquired the franchise. It was released on 360 and was totally [censored] metal. I have been dreaming about games more than usual lately...

something i would like to see from one of those games listed.

Something like the Golden Saucers (i think thats what it was called. played it back in 02) from FFVII.

For those of you who don't know, it was kinda like a minigame hub, disguised as an amusemant park, conviniently located in in the center of a god-forsaken desert.

Things i would like to see in Skyrim's "Golden Saucers":
Archery contests (+horseback archery)
close quarters combat contests (wooden weapons no magic)
jousting
Horse Races
I would like to have something that showcases magic as well, but i can't think of any.

Assassin's Creed Series: Stealth.
Thief Series : Stealth as well.
Bioshock: Magic
Dunno about combat.

Easy: Assassins Creed (1 - 2 - ACB)

1. Combat - Self explanatory...it's awesome

2. Horses - Animations, combat, and sounds

3. Swimming - Animations, fluidity of controls, wet clothes, fast swim

4. Gameplay animating - Absolutely stellar both in gameplay and cutscenes of all kinds

5. Clothing - Excellent design for clothes, armor, and cloth physics

6. NPC Interaction - Realistic speech, facial animation, voice

Any or all of those applied to Skyrim would be spectacular!

Those are my top picks. Not sure what else at this time. I'll add more that I can think of.

This is cool and all, but what does it have to do with Skyrim?

Fable I (NOT Fable II or III):

1. Some really fun, cool and great magic spells.

I just tried to describe elements I would like to see in Skyrim. Although I don't explicitly say "I'd like it to be in Skyrim like this" I wanted to imply that in my thread title. I think I could go into more depth how I'd personally like to see certain elements in ES:V but it's hard to say how to implement say, an engrossing main storyline that surprises you when you can't help the writer of that storyline directly. All I can say is "this game did it like this", and hope to see it in ES:V.

Sorry if that part is a bit vague, but these are game play elements I would love to see in Skyrim. When I was describing things like weapon and item utility, I actually hope that we see more Zelda like avatars where I have a few weapons and utility items that are useful in my exploration. It's something I would consider modding myself if it's not in release.

Edit: Also it wouldn't offend me if this topic was moved, or received hardly any replies. I was just in the mood to write this and hope that perhaps some of the devs peruse the forums.

Some more points about the Mass Effect series:

Dialogue progression: In ME, the dialogue actually feels like you're having a conversation with someone. You choose a dialogue option, and the conversation progresses forward instead of reverting back to a "menu" of dialogue choices. Oblivion's dialogue reminds me of numerical options on a company's telephone...."Press 1 for english.." I would love to see something like ME's conversations included with Skyrim. Including giving your character a voice!

A living epic: Playing ME makes me feel like the galaxy is spinning out of control unless I do something. And the "something" I have to do is pretty badass. Skyrim sounds like it will portray a far more epic story than Oblivion, and I really hope it delivers. I want to feel the desperation of the people around me.

I don't see any point in blindly saying you want certain elements in a game that's already well into development. I'd like Skyrim to be inventive. But what does that mean? Games begin with a concept and grow from it, you can't just butt in half way through and try to graft on "mystery." Because we're not on the team that began the game the only thing we can do that will have a remote shot at making it into the final product (outside of modding) is making very specific suggestions and requests or voicing specific concerns. This is more or less a spectator sport if you don't work for Bethesda.