My hopes for Skyrim DLC

DLC... an acronym that at once excites and annoys.  I can't say I'm against the concept, I only wish more developers would release worthwhile extensions to their games.  The PC crowd used to call these extra morsels "expansions".  The word alone promised a hefty handful of extra content that was well worth the trip to the store; and I think it also helped keep developers from spooning out content like rations (good luck releasing horse armor under the "expansion" monicker).  Fastforward to the future and the word expansion is all but forgotten - even in the PC arena.  Modern day console owners are finally tasting what PC gamers were ten or so years ago in the form of extra content for their favorite games.  Unfortunately, the shift from "expansion" to "DLC" has allowed developers to release extra content that can be underwhelming (extra weapons or even weapon skins for a buck or more) - this isn't across the board, but it's a common occurence.  Thankfully, certain developers go out of their way to produce something more akin to the now defunct term "expansion" - Rockstar and Bethesda to name a couple.  I could go on and on discussing the pros and cons of DLC, but I'd like to focus on one particular game: Skyrim!

What follows is basically just me dreaming, and expecting way more than is perhaps reasonable from Bethesda.

Recently, one PC gamer found the lands of Morrowind and Cyrodiil fully mapped out beyond the reaches of Skyrim.  They are not quite to scale when compared to their original counterparts, but the geography is certainly there.  Using no-clip, he managed to traverse a path not meant for the average gamer and came across views of not only the Red Mountain in Morrowind, but even (far, far in the distance) something that could only be the White Gold Tower in Cyrodiil.  The reality of this find is likely not as exciting as I would like it to be, though I can dream - and so I will...

Here's my (very unlikely) theory:  Apparently Todd Howard wanted Skyrim to recapture the feeling of excitement and discovery that Morrowind was brimming with, which I thought was lacking in Oblivion.  Bethesda certainly succeeded in this, in fact they completely out-did themselves on every level.  What if this enthusiasm carried over to the DLC?  I think it's possible, as Howard himself has said that the amount of Skyrim's DLC would be less than previous games, but also "more substanstial", as he told Wired.com.  Certainly sounds more like...what was that word again?  Oh yes!  Sounds an awful lot like "expansions" to me, from that forgotten era when extra content meant more than just a new multiplayer skin for other people to raise an eyebrow at before blowing its head off.

Imagine, if you will, revisiting the lands of Morrowind and Cyrodiil with Skyrim's shiny, new engine.  It would be interesting to see how the landscapes and people of these areas have changed over the past few hundred years - especially after the volcanic eruption in Morrowind.  I say send us back, Bethesda, and give us an expansion that bests even the excellent Shivering Isles from Oblivion.  Give us a game that we can play for the next few years, always knowing that each time we fire up our console or PC something new is waiting for us.  As far as content is concerned, Skyrim is at least double that of Oblivion's; so if the drive to create a base game so large as Skyrim is there, then it seems logical that any expansions are going to be equally ambitious if even on a smaller scale.  We may not get the entirety of Morrowind or Cyrodiil to explore, but even a small chunk of each area could be filled with a good hundred or so hours of gameplay.  On a side note, considering the possible size of said DLC, it seems likely that the geography of these two lands were included to reduce the size of the files upon release, thus making for a quicker download and a happier customer.  I can't say it enough: the inclusion of these lands is intriguing and makes the nerd in me daydream about the possibilities at every opportunity. 

So I say yes, Mr. Howard, by all means have your talented team tack on another few hundred hours of gameplay. And take your time too, because Talos knows this milk-drinker has awhile to go before he's bored of Skyrim.