My third character and I still hav`nt killed the dragon yet and I kind of like exploring the world without having to kill a bunch of dragons. I hav`nt even finished the main quest yet or picked a side in the civil war am I missing much.

I almost never kill dragons or even do the main quest. Just don't want to.

Nope. When you do those quests, be ready for a letdown.

I found the main quest exciting the first time through. Not sure if someone who has most likely been bombarded with millions of spoilers would. It's fun once, but might be okay a few more times. I bought this game day one, so there's why it was more exciting to me than it probably would have been now.

My first character did the main quest and civil war just to experience it, but since then I've skipped it for gameplay and roleplay reasons. You're not missing much, but I would still eventually get around to doing it.

Kill the dwagon, kill the dwagon, kill the dwagon!

other than shouts your not missing much really.

I've never finished the main quest...I rarely even go beyond killing the first dragon outside of whiterun, and often never even start the mq

I didn't know thing one about the main quest when I did it. The problem is that the final battle is not epic in any way, shape, or form. Its just another dragon fight.

As stated by others, you are not missing much. Even the shouts are not that big of a deal. I had one character collect them all just to do it, but he rarely used more than unrelenting force...and didn't use it much either. After a while the dragons get to be an annoyance and nuisance. "Damn! Not another one. I got things to do."