I'm really tired of people either misinformed, or blatantly lying about the quests in Skyrim. The common complaint goes something like this:

"Skyrim just holds your hand for everything."
"Unlike Skyrim, I miss the way Morrowind made you actually think to solve a quest."
"I don't like that Skyrim uses a map marker for every quest."

I don't know any easier way to say it: These statements are just blatantly false! Skyrim has a metric ton of quests that do absolutely no hand-holding at all. In fact, most of the quests in my journal have no map marker associated with them. If you look closely at the ones that DO have quest markers, it's because the quest giver actually already knew exactly where you needed to go so, therefore, it makes sense that your map would point you there.

I've seen treasure maps, stories in books, mysterious notes, and overheard conversations about quests that can be done without any journal entry at all. Some do give me a journal entry with no map marker, some do not. The point is that there is no basis for this insane criticism that "Skyrim spoon-feeds your quests". It's simply not true.

You must be playing a different game. Virtually every quest has a quest marker. I appreciate that the developers included an option in the INI file to disable quest marks, but I tried playing without them for a while and there are some quests were you are essentially required to use the quest marker.

Why? Two primary reasons. One: there are no "directions" given for quests ala Morrowind. You are always simply told "Go here, do this." When was the last time a quest giver referenced the path to an objective using landscape, rivers, mountains or other dungeons/caves? You were commonly told things like "Head east for a while until you see a small grove of trees then look for a door in the hills to the north" or whatever in Morrowind. The other reason: lack of conversation with NPCs to get directions. You used to sort of get in the general area with directions and then be forced to have some dialogue with NPCs (and use Speech I might add) and get more specifics on the location of your quest item/person. All of this is now gone in favor of the quest marker.

What I do now is leave the markers enabled in the INI but don't select the quests in my journal unless absolutely necessary so I am forced to do a little exploration on my own. Disabling quest markers was only half the battle though, they needed to add more directions and explanations to actually be able to have a chance at doing the quest without the marker.

You obviously don't know now to use the journal, much like me. I'm sure you are talking about the Misc. Quests. Well, to activate those pointers you have to click the Misc Quest tab and then click the actual quest you want to complete and the marker will magically appear.

I have yet to find a quest that didn't have a marker. I also have yet to find a quest where I got enough information to complete the quest without the marker.

So your post is the one that is false, not the ones who have very valid complaints about the GPS in Skyrim.

And you can not have an active quest, disable markers and the compass if you want.

Well, if youa re using the PC and REALLY want a realisim experiance, turn off the HUD via the console ("tm"). However, you will be indeed of putting it back on constantly then off again. It adds for an EPIC gameplay experiance.

I would much rather have more information. In fact, I'd like to be able to type in the journal when they give me information about the quest. I took some notes last night over directions, but then I realized that I probably wouldn't need them because when the time came, Skyrim would hold my hand.

So basically, people are too [censored] to NOT activate or toggle off the quest huh?

And basicly you are too [censored] to actually read my post and realize that turning off the quest compass isn't an option huh?

Not true. I've had several quests that, pressing "show on map", simply pointed me to my own character marker and nothing more. I've had other quests that came straight out of a piece of parchment or a book with no quest marker, journal entry, or map marker at all.

Would you tell me what quests they are? I would love to find them because I have yet to see one and I've got over 20 hours into the game.

That is just blatantly false. I own the damn Prima Players guide. I can see for myself TONS of quests with no map markers. My character has received a lot without markers as well.

I loved one of the quests in Morrowind
'Head East'.
What he meant was head NNE, but hey, it's still in an eastwardly direction right? Took me hours to eventually stumble across it, while looking for it intently. (Though some directions were awesome!).

I personally miss the old descriptive way of handling quest and have to admit I prefer the old way of doing things, but I can see why this was done.
The OP btw was right there are quests without markers. Though I haven't found too many yet (and no I'm not talking about the collect XX items ones ).

If you deactivate the quest it no longer shows on the compass...

A lot of those quests where the quest giver knows exactly where you need to go are so strange and unrealistic, for example when you run into a radiant quest of some escapee from a group of bandits, they have no idea where they are or where the nearest city is yet they conveniently can point out on the map where the bandits are hold up and even give you the name of the cave/fort, that kind of thing is what I personally don't like.

I have no idea why I would want to disable quest markers, when I have tons of quests already with no markers at all anyway.

I deactivated the quest markers through Skyrimpref.ini...took out the compass as well and got rid of the HUD that had the mana/health/stamina bar.

But yeah, if you are on PC, you can easily get rid of the quest markers through the pref.ini

Again, READ MY POST.

Better yet, I'll tell you again.

Turning off the compass isn't an option BECAUSE THERE ARE NO DIRECTIONS TO TELL YOU WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO AND WHERE.

Without directions turning off the compass IS NOT AN OPTION.

Ok then, when i deactivate the quest, where are the npc's that i can talk to to get information on the quest from? There are no dialogue options.

Most quests actually tell you what dungeon you should go by name.

No, it doesn't tell you vague directions, but it is shown on the map, without quest markers.

Quest hand holding isn't just about markers, it's also about what you are expected to do as a player. For instance, a quest by someone about something involves you getting into a high class event. After thinking to myself that I need clothes appropriate for such an event, that is not blood spattered leather armor. I head over to the fanciest of fancy apparel shops. I spend a pretty penny on my exact set of clothes that show off my figure and make me feel important. I then head to the quest giver who has further instructions. Said person then insults my current selection of clothing and hands me clothing. Aside from my shoes, that person handed me the exact same model of clothing by coincidence.

It's no surprise to me that I have been met by several instances of quests or events where the people involved have shoved the answer directly in my face and shooting down my attempt to critically think of a way past a given problem.

Another example, again vague to avoid spoilers, is where I was required to retrieve an item from a tomb. This tomb is kind of special and there is a specific way to get in requiring a lot of effort and knowledge. I start thinking to myself "Well, this is going to be a doozy, but I will have to shop and ask around for what I need to formulate this unique key." And before I even finished my thoughts the very next sentence from the guy was "Oh, and here, I already got it for you." Essentially, what just happened was a build up of a possibly involving quest that required me to actually DO stuff immediately devolving into a insert key into door and kill things quest.

/rant

I think i'm right saying that if you dont select a specific misc quest in the sub menu, but do have the misc "main" menu activated that you can do the quests but will not be given map markers.

Euh... you gotta be kidding. I have a [censored]load of quests in my journal and I don't remember a single one that asked you to go to a specific location without a quest marker. The only quests without them are those you need to find fire salts, jewels and such, something you can find in numerous locations. Otherwise, you 98% of the time have a quest marker. And you can't go around it, unless you're asked to go to a known city, the quest giver might not even tell you where to go! OFTEN they just tell you ''I need to retrieve this'', and your journal says retrieve x item from x location, location which was never actually given. In Morrowind, you had only cities marked on the map, you had to ask the directions (and/or location) from someone or get them from the quest giver. In Skyrim, 5% (random number which I think is more or less close to the real one) of the quests have someone guide you partly, or the whole way through, somewhere, and/or get actual directions. Most of the locations are given by telepathy.

Treasure cards are nice, but they are no quests. I got a quest from reading a book, but even if its location was not written, I still had the ruin marked on my map... Why can't I ask a scholar about its location? And why should everyone who wants you to fetch something from some obscure ruin would necessarily know EXACTLY where it was? It's not because you know something you need is from somewhere, that you know where that somewhere is. Not everyone who are looking for specific items are adventurers roaming the wilderness, half of the reason to ask your services is because they are not adventurers. And when you need to talk to someone, why is he marked? The guy has a schedule and all, why does he get marked as if the guy knew where he was all the time? Why can't you ask him where he lives/works or hangout? Hell, they did that in Oblivion and there were markers...

As much as I like Skyrim and think it's a massive step up from Oblivion, it still lacks, is even worse, in the quest department. The map isn't even a real one, you can't see the main roads, or the river names, the regions. Every single location you find gets marked on the map, etc. I wish the journal was a real journal. Something which I could open up to read my character's thoughts to know what I'm doing, but there's [censored]load of missing information. Only what I need to do is written, not even the location, I have to press the ''see location on the map'' button in order to do so. It was so much better in Morrowind, you could get additional updates when asking more things from the quest giver or others, the location, the directions (not always). Bethesda just needed to make it possible for you to insert notes or page keepers, add markers yourself on the map and tie them with a journal page number or something. Many found Morrowind's journal confusing, but it just meant there was place to improve it, to make it easier to follow quests and more immersive in the process. Instead they turned it into a quest log which only got more simpler. In Oblivion, it could be called a journal since there were actual journal entries even if it was a quest log, but in Skyrim, there's no journal entries at all, it's a quest log in the purest and most simplistic sense.

The criticism is entirely warranted. I guess you didn't play Morrowind to say this. And you can even know you're going to discover a location before actually finding it...

I would rather have a quest marker than the obscure misleading directions that were in Morrowind.

Besides, how does a quest marker hold your hand? You still have to get there, you still have to fight the enemies, you still need to make sure you are prepared, you still have to solve the puzzles, you still have to make it back home.

Could this be implemented better? Sure, most games have something that could be implemented better. Me, I will go where the map tells me to and then figure out what I have to do on my own to achieve the goal. Most quests are more about how you do them not where you do them.

That happened to me as well. I was really disappointed...

Like the OP, I have found tons of quests without markers. Only they add markers at the next stage of the quest.