The guild quests. Too short, anti-climatic and no sense of accomplishment. Being a guild leader of any guild felt sadly, pointless. All of the storylines ranged from mediocre to bad (Mages Guild taking the cake right there.) There weren't any exciting twists or compelling characters. I can't believe this but Oblivion actually did a better job of guild quests. Anyone agree? I've started fresh a couple of times and find myself avoiding any of the guilds and just wondering around.

While I agree that the guild quests were too short, I prefer the Skyrim guild stories over Oblivion's. Oblivion's guild had some of the worst, and most annoying, themes ever.

I hated the Robdin hood thieves guild
I hates the blood cultists DB
I hated the overly white kniht fighters guild
and I hated the dumb as doornails mages guild.

I can safely say that, besides the Gey Fox, who I only marginally liked, Oblivion's guilds were some of the worst, and most annoying, characters, ever.

Skyrim's guilds were far better in terms of overall plot, and characters.

Skyrim has good idea, but bad implimentation, while Oblivion had terrible ideas, but good implimentation.

And people complained about the Mages' Guilds recommendations.

Yeah, disappointing, and yeah, Oblivion did things much better, with two provisos: everyone in the Fighters' Guild just sits back waiting for their leader to run it into the ground? Looks like another side job for the guy/gal who is fated to save the world. And Whodunnit? Why does everyone think that is so good? What am I missing?

While certainly not the worst aspect of Skyrim, it's a bit disappointing that so much freedom and potential was wasted in designing the guilds. Though after being treated to hundreds of hours of gameplay I wouldn't say I'm unsatisfied.

I haven't played Oblivion so I can't compare, but definitely a lot more could have been done with guilds. In the very least, they should have made a better reputation system (so that after becoming the Harbinger, you don't hear anymore "So you're the new member of the Companions... what do you do, fetch mead?", etc.) and added some guild management after you become a head of the guild (recruiting new members, assigning tasks to the existing ones, testing their skills and so on).