One thing I noticed that Bethesda seems to stay away from is giving your character any time of power. By power I mean making you either the leader of an army, or hold, or empire even. You can become the head of a guild, but there really isn't a leadership role. All you do is sit around and get the benefits. The lack of respect your character gets in Skyrim is a bit much. I mean you practically single handedly help the Legion or Stormcloaks win and you are still considered hired muscle almost. Also you would things saving the world from destruction would give you some respect, also you are dragonborn so technically you are in line to be emperor of the empire. At least in Oblivion they made a statue of you! I think Bethesda needs to take the next step and give the player some power, and more specifically some decision making power.

Yes, even after becoming Harbinger, you still take random jobs from the rest of the circle as if you're some new whelp. Was Kodlak doing that? The other guilds are similar, in that being the person in charge doesn't amount to anything but a fancy title.

If anything, the Dragonborn deserves their own statue, just like the Hero of Kvatch.

Agreed. Agreed. Agreed.
Essentially my one gripe with this game is that you can become Harbinger of the Companions, Archmage of the College of Winterhold, Guildmaster of Thieves and herald of the rebellion/savior of the Imperial front all the while being a Thane five times over AND the Dragonborn and a common guard will still make petty comments about my level 41 Sneak skill...
A little recognition, maybe a line of dialogue or two, maybe a trophy or a coffee mug. Number 1 Dovahkiin.

In Oblivion, one of the most memorable parts to me out of the entire game was when you had a bunch of mages, and they all told you their strengths and weaknesses, and you could position them and give them orders based on this. That part really stood out to me for some reason, and I felt like I was actually being strategic and using my mind to prepare for battle. Even though it was really simple and streamlined the way they did it, but it doesn't bother me. This isn't an RTS or anything.

Actually....a TES RTS is a much better idea than a TES MMO

Anyways I agree, I always feel like the pawn, never the player.

Screw the damn statue. Give me a stronghold or a castle.

Couldn't agree more. I mean, I travelled into Sovengard (spelled wrong) and killed Alduin THE WORLD EATER and what do I get? Nothing! No one stops me in the street an congratulates me or says thank you for saving their pitiful lives. Come on! I saved Tamriel but no one give a flying [censored].

I believe at the end of Oblivion people would comment on your success at defeating Mehrunes/stopping him/helping Martin or whatever. You also got that gold plated looking Imperial armor which was really cool (made you feel like you earned something special) and you got that statue like previously mentioned. I think even with KoTN installed they would comment on you after defeating Umaril/wearing the armor (not 100% positive on this one). I was really disappointed with the ending to Skyrim. Not going to say anything in particular since this is the general forum, but you don't get any real reward at the end. I mean you really don't get any special armor, weapon, item, house, horse, or anything. I wish they could have had it so at the end you are contacted via Courier and told to meet at the Great Porch of Dragonsreach. Once you get there you are congratulated by all the Jarl's of the holds and awarded a special set of armor as congratulations. That would have been perfectly acceptable I believe. Either way, I think Oblivion did a better job of making it seem like you did something even for some of the guilds like the Dark Brotherhood and the Mages Guild, but not enough in general.

Bethesda really needs to rethink the way guilds work for the next entry in the ES series. It doesn't quite make sense that you can be the head of every guild, but I don't know if they should prevent you from joining them. I will say that I enjoyed the Thieves Guild in Skyrim because you actually had to work to become the Guild master. You had to do a bunch of repetitive jobs, but they were jobs that benefitted the Thieve's Guild and made becoming the Guild master all the more rewarding (felt like you worked for it). All the other guilds just felt a bit rushed imo. More expansive quest lines, harder requirements for becoming the leader of the guild, the option to turn down the position of leadership in favor of someone else, sense of authority when in the guild as the leader, ability to issue jobs, etc would all be good things in my mind for future guilds in TES games.

I would love to become the ruler of an empire or something and be able to run the empire and try to wage war and defeat the Aldmeri and take back all of Tamriel. To oblivion with the High Elves (even though my character is a high elf... he hates the Aldmeri though!)

I believe TES should incorperate large scale battles as many have seen in the Great Battle Of Skyrim video on youtube...Maybe with a bit of AI overhauls the game could be managable during large scale wars. Giving the player the option to choose formations and set up strategies the game could be expanded in an extravagant way...Well, enough with the fancy words...It would be cool if we had more weapon types ennemies that didn't just shoot or charge or shield and maybe some more epic sceneries and locations...Anyway I loved reading alot of the ideas and wanted to put out my own.

In Morrowind once you finished te main quest everyone greeted you as the Neravarine. Not much but more than Skyrim.