Ok so my first character I was a good guy and avoided the dark brotherhood and the thieves guild quests. I joined the companions and it seemed like it was over after a few little quests? Same with the mages guild. Go here, do that, kill this or that, boom done. Really?

So I join the dark brotherhood with my next character and wow, it's like 10 hours of content, that was written better the guild hall seems more alive and with a purpose, and I'm impressed. Then I do the thieves guild and it's the same way. Nice atmosphere, merchants where you can find them, quests that seem to make sense, and decent reward items, as well as 10+ hours of content.

So my guess is Bethesda had one team do the db and thieves guild quests, and some newbie do the mages guild. The mages guild quest made no sense, none of the characters had a long enough part to even leave an impression on me, and I felt like what I was doing didn't matter one bit. I was never promoted like in Oblivion to a new rank, never given anything really cool, and the writing could have been way better.

Fighters guild was ok, but it seemed totally oriented towards werewolves rather than doing anything for the fighters guild. The werewolf part should have been a small side quest you do for the leader guy, not the actual companions quest itself! I mean really? This is it? 2 hours and its over? So the ceremony was cool, and the end part was a little emotional (trying not to spoil here) but other than that, it was too short and felt like it had nothing to do with being a companion, but more about werewolves.

In Oblivion the mages guild quest was better. Necromancers a growing threat and a nice long progression of character with rewards and a feeling you are a small part of the guild. The guild was cooler with people everywhere. I could never find anyone to sell me anything in the Skyrim one.

Does anyone else feel this way? Like they slopped together the mages guild and put their hearts into the evil quests instead? To me it looks like a different team did the mages for sure. It was crap compared to the thieves guild and dark brotherhood, and I like playing a good guy, I am by no means partial to the evil play style, I just thought the evil guilds are done 10x better.

its me too..that said to each thier own . for me at least the thieves guild was my favorite(nightingale until i am one with the shadows)

You're right. DB was my personal favorite.

Mages totally svcked.

Yep! Both the Companions and the College felt like that there was a lot of stuff that didn't make it in.

I loved the premise of the College and the Companions. that said, their execution was sloppy.
I have yet to play either the thieves guild or the DB,as my current character is a nice guy
that being said, Oblivion Mages guild and fighter's guild are still the best guild questlines IMO

the amount of content in the thieves guild and the way in which it was structured makes me believe its the only guild bethesda actually finished. the DB was almost as substantial... the companions and mages guild fell completely flat compared to them.

its not just you. there is a clear disparity in the quality and substance of each guild.

Yes they were. They were amazing.

I do like the premise and atmospheres of the College and Companions though

Thieves guild took forever to complete. Yes, I want to restore the thieve guild to its former glory, not do a million side quests.

Is it just me or does the thieves guild and brother hood quest line feel the same?

1) Your new and "hated"
2) You do quest's
3) You get appreciated
4) You get backstabbed
5) You seek revenge
6) Your leader..

Better than the college of winterhold and companions

• Your new and unexpirienced
  
• You do quests
  
• Something bad happens
  
• You go into some old dungeon to fix it
  
• Your the leader even though you've hardly done anything and everyone else has more expirience

yeah i feel like in oblivion the guild quest lines were better done-they didn't follow a pattern and the plot twists were actually surprising and you had to slowly work your way through the ranks

If the DB line was better then the other factions, then god help me. I thought the DB line was very very bad.

i think the personal relationships were thought out more in the db and tg lines i just saw mages as quest not really liked anyone in college noone stood out so to speak they might of left it so bare for dlc to expand who knows(shrugs)

Thieves Guild took the longest, but the end was a little redundant and poorly implemented. All it did was add an extra layer of time. Did have some pretty sweet looking rewards along the way though.

DB was sick, I loved it. Sort of anti-climactic at the end, but the payoff was well worth it. The nostalgia factored in from Oblivion, the various equipment/skills/other rewards were outstanding and a real boon to every other aspect of the game. From tanking, to sneaking, to followers... only guild that did this.

Companions had 3 very big benefits, some pretty sick fights, and all in all wasn't as short as people made it out to be. The weapon, the shield and the skill are great. Not to mention the Skyforge and Underforge scenes, let alone the dungeon sequence towards the end for Kodlak.

Mages?

Well, Labyrinthian and the neat little areas right outside of it were fun. I would have liked to see a certain order's story played out a little more, but who knows. Other than that, I don't know. Free alchemy garden? Meh...

Between the four, Mages and Companions have the most room for future growth. I would think anyway.

Could they have all been better? Sure.

Were they omg wtf horrible, boring and completely useless?

No.

I liked the companions. It was when i first joined Skyrim and i was having a blast with them.

My warrior and mage characters stay away from Thieves and DB quests since it don't fit them. It's also a reason I am playing my Thief class more, lots more content.....

The only thing I didn't like is that:

I personally didn't like the Dark Brotherhood that much, but I guess it's still better than the College and Companions. Thieves Guild was my absolute favourite, by far. It had lots of content, the story was really well written and you actually felt like a part of a guild, although there are no ranks. That you become the leader is also not out of the blue, but explained quite well in the story. The Thieves Guild is really on its own level, imo.

I'd sorta been putting off the guilds for a while so I've only completed the Companions and the Thieves.

The Companions was a pretty good "fighters" quest, I kinda wish it hadn't veered into the werewolf angle so much, but whatever, it was cool. I like the guild hall and the more expansive back story.

I thought the Thieves Guild was really cool. A lot grittier and, I thought, a lot better then the last few games. In Oblivion there were some stealthy guests, but mostly you could approach them however you wanted. Skyrims did a lot better job of not only rewarding stealth but also designing some great stealthy quests. Ducking into dark corners, putting out torches, listening and waiting for guards to walk by... Some of those quests felt just like I was back playing "Thief" again. (sore tensed up shoulders and all) Plus all the side quests can keep you active if you're not looking to blow through the guild too fast.

I thought they were fun before, but I feel like they really nailed it for the first time in Skyrim.

You're not the only one that was left with those impressions. There are certain areas that seem to be more fleshed out than others. The only problem I had with the Thieves Guild was .

This discussion is just one of many discussions that strongly supports the notion that Skyrim was released before being complete. And they probably had no choice. Their investors most likely forced them to release before being polished. It seems like the Mages and Companions quests were given the old "just make it work" approach.

The College of Winterhold does not make any impression on me, nor is it believeable. For one, you hardly had any contact with everyone before being namd the Arch-Mage, and the Psijic Order simply named you Arch-Mage and the people followed through. I mean, if you think about it, the only thing you've done for the College is finding something and killing someone because of it. All the while you've been little more than an errand boy, and suddenly you're the Arch-Mage

I haven't even remembered everyone's names!
And up until I'm the Arch-Mage, I'm just a new student! What about my teacher?

Mages guild felt like it was missing the middle. The start and the finish were fine if there was a longer, and stronger, middle. Even if a lot of the side quests were made required (because there are quite a few, including a long chain) it would have helped I think.

Companions was... meh. I really expected it to be longer. There was a lot of room for a long drawn out battle with those other guys.

Thieves guild started strong but towards the end it stopped feeling so "thiefy" and it kind of annoyed me. Then there's the side quests... argh.

Dark Brotherhood I was sad when it was over. I was having a lot of fun with it. I saw the end coming, and the pacing was fine. I just wanted more. DB has the second weakest side quests I think though (thieves guild is the worst).

From what I see the guild questlines for the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood are more for the story driven player.
Where as The Companions / College of Winterhold questlines feel more like they are to be played in conjuction with side quests.


Oh and personally I did not find the guild questlines short at all, nor did I find them boring, unemotional or unrealistic by TES standards.
But all to their own I guess. I'm just happy knowing I didn't find a Mannimarco v3 at the end of the College of Winterhold questline.

I decided to go against the DB since I was thinking of how it was in Oblivion, and I just thought those scumbags need to be taken out, becuae my character is basically "good", so I did that quest to "Destroy the Dark Brotherhood", but to my disappointment, it was just one short quest to clear their hideout, not more interesting than a cave of bandits. So I guess I missed out on a lot of content here. Well, there's always another character to play sometime later when I feel like it

I'm glad others feel the same way. The companions was decent but to me the theme felt more like a side quest. I liked in Oblivion how you felt more like a mercenary working your way up the ranks. You are addressed properly, there is a guild hall in every city so you always have a place to stay, and the quest gave me a feeling of advancement and that I was doing something perhaps making me worthy of guild leader. Same with the mages guild. You get promoted many times, the NPC's you do quests for sort of give you a feeling you are getting to know people in the guild and the quest was great.

I joined the mages guild with nearly every character in Oblivion where I am very doubtful I will ever join it again in future Skyrim play throughs. It left no impact and the rewards were nothing special. I'm not 100% sure, but I'd guess I can get all the spells from other vendors. The hall seems empty. I mean 3 students and a handful of teachers really. Whats up with that? We lost 2 armor slots so we can have more NPCs yet there are less. Oblivion probably had 75 fighters guild members if you add up all the members, and more at the mages guild.

What they should have done was make the player do quests to learn spells. Make some Gandalf greybeard looking guy have you fetch him tobacco and do a few dumb things in the beginning which seemingly have no purpose and then he reveals to you that there actually was a purpose. Maybe work your way through several instructors of each school and then you get a new teacher with harder quests to learn better spells. Have a novice teacher, an adept teacher, etc. Spells should not be in books you buy but have to be taught. Maybe only high skilled members be able to learn from a book, but a novice should have to be taught spells from an instructor and practiced over and over. A chance to misfire or not work for a while, etc. It just feels like they threw something together. Magic could have been awesome but the whole guild and the spells seem like an afterthought.