Well, the Grey Beards do recognize the fact you killed Alduin at the minimum. It seems nobody else knows or has a way to find you did it. The Jarl of Whiterun should have had some specific dialog when you come back though. After all, you DID leave on a dragon's back under his nose to stop Alduin from eating the world. And now you are back and he doesn't even bother to ask what happened?

I dunno. I really liked the Call of Valor shout on my assassin; it saved me a few times.

Why? First off, barely anyone in the entire world knew Alduin was returning. No one witnessed his defeat. What were you supposed to do? Walk around saying "Yeah, I found Sovngarde and entered it, alive, and killed Alduin The World Eater." Pfft, yeah right. The only people who knew weren't exactly the most social people ever. Word didn't really spread.

And worst of all, the grey beards disappeared in my game.

They did that in mine too. Apparently they only return if you kill Paarthurnax, and only so they can be pissed at you for doing so. Which is another thing. He's a freakin' pacifist dragon, why the hell am I being told by the Blades to kill him, and I have no option of convincing them otherwise?!

Even so, barely anything changes. Even when you follow the paths of Stormcloaks or Imperials, nothing happens.

Morrowind, Cool title and recognition as well as a Gift from Azura

Oblivion, Cool Title, lots of acknowledgement and armor

Skyrim, Hey thanks for saving us all from the end of the world, now before you enter the College of Winterhold, ill need you to prove......

Yes, many people. See for example http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1274104-anyone-else-severely-disappointed-with-the-ending/

No they don't. They just move into a different room in the temple. Use detect life and find them.

...No. They were actually gone.

Although it would be difficult they could still have DLC that scans through all the existing quest states to at least provide relevant dialog around the world in response to the pre-DLC ending instead of just the NPCs not having anything different to say. This probably isn't a good business idea but would add more polish to the game.

Well if they were seriously committed to having unique DLC they could change the main story line and that would just add replayabilty to the game. I dont doubt that this isnt likely to happen as people might find it as a hard sell, buying additional content for existing story line. But I wouldn't mind if the changes were significant and allowed for more choice and paths to take.

They already stated that this game would be more linear than fallout was like but they could change that if they wanted not that it is going to happen. They could let you time travel back to the start of the MQ with your items, stats, and minor quests unaffected. (That would be weird though)

I honestly thought that when I travelled back in time, that would be another quest. I felt while doing this quest that I was inevitably getting closer to the end. I mean, finding a way to kill a dragon? There's no real crazy elements to it. At least with Oblivion, we had to infiltrate the Mythic Dawn cult and do all this elaborate stuff before killing the final boss. This, this was just underwhelming.

pretend theres a LIKE BUTTON... click... I just pressed it i totally agree with this statement!

Nice to see I'm not alone.

The Lore is epic in this story.
The actual game as a game is mediocre.

The whole blades thing just made me "lul wut?" though.

Yes, I agree. My progress with them was completely stunted because I wouldn't kill Paarthurnax, and there was no way to say no. Even when they said if I didn't, I was their enemy, I tried killing them and they were still essential.

I must have had a different main quest from the rest of you.

In mine, I captured a dragon then I compelled it to take me for a dragonride to the very gates of the afterlife itself. Then I journeyed into the land of the dead and defeated an enormous dragon-god-thing using the help of my soul-tearing roared shout while fighting alongside the great dragon-slaying heroes of ages long past, at the whale-boned doorstep of the meadhall of Valhalla itself.

Honestly, I have trouble seeing that as a let-down, even if I didn't get uber-gear out of it.
Nothing much changes? Good. I know what I did, and so do a select few who knew about the whole dragonborn/alduin thing. Meanwhile I can go do a bunch of regular stuff without feeling like it's strange that people are one minute obsequiously fawning over, and the next minute giving dogsbody quests to The Greatest Hero Of The Age™. Because hey, to them I'm just that weird guy in the silly facemask who they always see sprinting through the street carting sacks full of bloodstained weapons and armour to the local blacksmith every five minutes.

It was really sad in oblivion martin stole are thunder but at least we got a tittle and useless armor to put on display, but this was just like a few people said thanks and then it was now go do random stuff, i mean talos became a god, and what do i get, a thanks from an old dragon and a shout, they should have given us a shout that would let us return to sovengard how cool would that be. I really hope theres a dlc where we become a jarl and one where we go to the realm of talos, also one where we destroy the thalmor, those would be just amazing dlc and any problem i had with the game would be overruled by that

Why does everyone go to the immediate loot aspect. Loot isn't even a major part of it. There was so much more going on with the Oblivion storyline. With this, it was just, oh, kill a dragon (the same size as all the rest) a slightly different way. Considering just how easy dragons are, it was completely underwhelming. There could have been more to the story. There wasn't even a single real twist, besides the fact that we needed to learn some shout. Ooh, big deal. How about something more substantial? With Oblivion, there was so much more to do to complete the main quest.

The actual ending I didn't like, some dragons fly around for a little bit then leave...

That was part of my problem. They were roaring so much that I couldn't even hear the epilogue from Paarthurnax. I was like, gawd shut up!

Uh this is Skyrim, one can not be king without wielding a sword. Sure you can you can be an adventurer and a king, you would just be a terrible king but king nonetheless.

I'm thankful I didn't do the Blades side of the Storyline. Right from the getgo I knew the blades were just Ignorant Dragon haters.

What? You kinda have to to progress the main quest.

I enjoyed the ending. If you do it at the very end of your character's 'life' and don't do anything after it feels pretty satisfying because you don't expose the lack of acknowledgement or change in the game world. I really found the mountaintop with the epilogue and the dragons flynig around and the red dragon talking to me to be very satisfying and conclusive.

Also the dragons stop attacking people after you're done. (yes, I know this isn't technically true, but if you stop playing after you finish the MQ you can retcon it to be true )