Ra'vhash agrees with this!

The 2 for me so far are the Thieves Guild & The Civil War quests. For me, I believe the reason the TG is bugged (and I'm unable to continue) is that I broke into the meadery in Whiterun beofre I was supposed to. (It was very early in my game and I just wanted to see the kit pieces they used to construct the interior of it, lol.)

The Civil War quest is stuck (I believe) because the next fort I am supposed to clear and take over for the Empire I cleared some time ago as well. I'm supposed to get orders from Rikke, and she simply will not open her next dialog, leaving me stuck. That character had 150 hours on it, and is the only one I've had to get stuck because with the others I've played things fairly linear. If you do all the quests in the game, you'll eventually go to every location and dungeon anyway as there are VERY few locations that are not included in one of the quests. So I'm sticking with that until the next patch.

Maybe try being more anol about grammar ha, joke.

I like to spread my game about, collecting all the quests I can, then choosing to do them when I feel like it

Decide what's important to you and follow that questline. I know I want to solve the College of Winterhold (I'm a battlemage) and the Companions (I like Aela). Everyone else who tugs on my sleeve can bloody well wait (though if I happen to stumble upon what they want, I'll do it).

Which is why we need proper quest descriptions (and even the appropriate dialog entries) in the journal. Just like they were available in the previous games.

Usually my first 2 or 3 characters are like this, running around collecting quests from Guilds or random quests from taverns for 10 or so levels.

But once I have got a good idea of the playstyle I want I usually start over and only collect quests that they would be interested in.

My current character is a Breton Mage who is only interested in Knowelege, he has joined the college so he can use the quests and mages there to gain knowledge of the magical arts, but this also leads into other smaller quests which fit with his self obsesed style.

He is also interested in gaining knowledge through the Daedra and their quests he will also pick up, he collects books about the Dwemer enters any Dwemer ruins his path crosses.

But he will not ask the tavern keepers about jobs, as he has no interest in helping people, only himself.

I plan on playing out his story so that he eventually joins the dark brotherhood to help fund his quest for knowledge, but am currently waiting for when the time comes when he reads a book or has a conversation concernng them so he can get interested in them

but anyway thats how I cut down on the quests that I accept, or even look for

Same here. Multiple starts. Overwhelmed. Etc.
Just restarted...hopefully this character will do it for me.

Yes, the NPCs will wait for years for you to get around to rescuing their sweet-roll.

I didn't read through all the replies, so if I'm repeating anyone I'm sorry. I know EXACTLY what you're feeling, and it's an MMO syndrome. I'm guessing you're coming from WoW or some other similar MMO, where a town was nothing more than a "quest hub" where you'd max out your quest log, complete each quest in a timely manner, cash in the quests, and move on to the next town. This mindset doesn't work for Skyrim for several reasons-- most importantly because A:) Quest completion doesn't earn you "XP", and B:) the stories for each quest become totally lost and muddled, you'll never be able to make sense of it when you're running around with 50 open quests.

It takes a while to get over this, but when you do you'll enjoy the game a lot more. You'll be visiting each town countless times over and over again, so only pick up a few quests that interest you at a time.

Here's a tip: RP a little bit. My newest character is a Cleric (D&D sense), and prioritizes quests at temples and quests involving deities. This might help your focus a little bit, so you won't be tempted to grab every single quest you can get your hands on. Good luck!

Well I haven't played an MMO in about 4 years. But yes I played WoW and many others back in the day. It does probably somehow stem from those experiences. I still find myself wanting to finish certain cities/questlines in order before I go to the next area. DAMN!!

I just try to do quests in an order which seems natural. In past Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, I used to gather all the quests I could and try to complete them all at the same time, but I find this to be far less enjoyable than how I do it now. If someone requests my help, I consider it relative to my characters motives and the quests urgency vs quests I'm already doing, and make a decision whether to do the new quest or not. Some quests I just leave on that character and plan to come back with a new character with whom it would make more sense. Makes for a very messy quest journal, but a more enjoyable experience.