The quests as a whole are disappointing. This game gets GOTY for crappy quests when they are important to the game.

I've just become the leader of the Companions after a few challenging escapades and Ayla sends me off on a quest to kill ...

Bethesda seemed obsessed with the size of the game in storage. It just seems like they made it so small to better fit the consoles because 4.6Gb is poor for a modern game and it shows. A lot of the textures have been compressed so badly as well. it seems they took storage size too seriously hoping no one would look at the textures closely.

You know, it IS possible that when multiple different people come to the same conclusion, it's not a "bandwagon" it's a truth.

The Thieves Guild is the only guild i actually enjoyed. The DB questline was super short although I happen to like Skyrim's DB membership better. Oblivioin's DB members stuck me as unreliably chaotic and unprofessional. And of course everyone knows how craptacular the Mages Guild was.

The radiant quests should have been a requirement for advancement and that would have help some. Do one majore quest line and then you have to to 20 radiant quests........another quest and another 20 radiant quests etc.

Is this your first guild? If so, you're in for some disappointment with others then.

yeah that vid was released around a month or so before skyrims release.

I have to agree with the OP. I do believe that the guild quests were severely lacking both in depth and in story.
The first TES game I played was Oblivion and the guild quests in that game were fantastic! They all equally had good stories and were all long questlines, as opposed to the current guild quests in Skyrim which are remarkably shorter. I loved the fact that you had to work your way through the ranks by doing a fairly large amount of quests that seemed more rewarding (Oblivion) instead of only having two ranks; newbie and guild boss (Skyrim). Having a section in the quest tracker (or journal) specifically showing your current status within the different guilds was pretty amazing.
That being said though, I did enjoy these quests but I felt slightly disappointed when compared to guild questlines in previous games.
Bethesda may have put more emphasis on the environment rather than the content of the quests in my opinion.

The Thieves Guild in Oblivion had twelve quests from Finding the Thieves Guild to The Ultimate Heist. In Skyrim they have eleven quests from A Chance Arrangement to a Darkness Returns. Restoring the Thieves Guild requries you do twenty radiant quests to unlock the special jobs, (five in Whiterun, Windhelm, Markarth and Solitude). Not counting the Radiant Quests, Restoring the Thieves Guild requires fifteen quests. As a bonus during the main questline you can collect the larceny targets.

The Dark Brotherhood offers a wide list of side contracts from Nazir these twelve named NPC's(who exist even without accepting the contracts) are optional but are just as long as many of the main quest contracts from Oblivion's DB.

Say what you will about the Companions and the Mages as they could stand to have been more involved.

The Mages aren't too bad. Beyond the main quest the apprentices all give you something to do, as well as several of the department heads. There's also a couple of non-journal-quest puzzles down in the guild catacombs.

Yeah, my second character still has "talk to the leader of the companions" in his log. Not even going to bother with a second run through.

The radiant quests are "Actual" quests.

The problem, especially with the Companions, was that it locked you out of the Radiant quests, and kept directing you to the givers of the "main" quests. The guilds could have worked if they'd:
a. Made Radiant quests more readily available, but ultimately as optional as they ended up being.
b. "Hid" the main questline from the players, instead of shoving it down their throats.
c. Acknowledged completion of Radiant Quests, and having a "false" Advancement in the guild that increased payout from Radiant Quests and gave you spiffy titles. You cannot get to "Master" down this path
d. Allowed an ambitious/cunning character to "Fast-track" by finding the Main Quest, and doing that - And the Main Quest needs a few "Jumping-off" points that allow it to try hiding in the Radiant Quests again. And if you accidentally turn down a "Main Quest", mistaking it for another Radiant Quest, there needs to be a "re-offerable" version of that quest.

oblivions guilds were better for sure.

I think the general consensus is that the guild quest lines and the main quest are too short. They seem to be relying on the radient quests to pad them out, and they're no substitue for scripted quests. But don't expect Beth to do anything about it. Short quest lines have been a complaint about most of their games so what do they do... cut them down even more.

What have you been smoking?

I did feel that way when I played through the college of Winterhold especially. Not so much did I feel this way in the Thieves Guild or the Brotherhood. But to end up the Arch Mage after not really using magic at all is kind of ridiculous...

There's a good in-story reason for that: High Elves are dikes who haven't had enough of Wuuthrad yet.

Did the mages college quests with my warrior who doesn't hardly use any magicka/mana, except healing spells. Next day he was the new archmage.

Don't you just love manipulative high elves who like to force their vision on everyone else, regardless of consent?

Guild quests were boring and short. The Companions and College of Winterhold are a complete joke.

I thought the Theievs Guil and DB were well paced, and I found the stories interesting. Companions... eh, not so much. You became a member of the inner circle with far too little effort for my taste.

I loved the CoW questline, right up until... bam, I was the archmage. I had to check the wiki to make sure my game hadn't glitched on me.

With that logic then the Twilight "saga" must be as good as everyone says!

I can only really comment on the Companions and Thieves Guild at this point.

I think there is a rather universal agreement that the Companions' questline was a low point in the series for Warrior Guilds. It encompasses all of six quests and you only ever need to do three Radiant quests before you are Harbinger. And the story was very badly written and paced.

The Thieves Guild was a bit better, but if you take a closer look at the story involved, you will notice how badly it was rushed, since it is abolutely full of plot holes and characters making some seriously stupid decisions.

Personally, I look forward to what the modders can do to improve the Guilds. Because they need it. Badly.

Considering they regret not planning for proper scripted questlines, I do feel that in future games will have the longer questlines coming back.

I want further reaching guilds. Like Morrowind and Oblivino where you travelled to different guildhalls in order to do quests and advance through the guild.