After Oblivion came out, it was roughly two months after release when I took apart the main quest. I was hoping to do it for Skyrim, but I simply cannot find the will to do it. The reason I cannot is because (to be brutally honest), Skyrim is not the best in the Elder Series. Oh, its fun to play it just does not have that same push Oblivion gave me.

Oblivion had something; it gave you a reason to fight and it was not just in the main quest, it was all over; from the main quest to the guilds and even side quests. In Skyrim it’s mostly, fetch me this and deliver that. Then you have the Main Quest, which I would hardly call “the need to stop this now” factor.

Sure, dragons attacking is bad, who wants that? However, it is no different from a gang of bandits destroying a small village. With the Dadera, they left chaos and carnage wherever they appeared. You saw an Oblivion Gate open up near a city and I was like “Oh sh!t, this cannot be good!”

In Skyrim I see a dragon flying above my head and it’s like “I don’t have time for this.” It is neat the first time, but after while; it is like a gnat buzzing in your face on a hot summer’s day. Hell half the time it was nice seeing a dragon flying over a city and killing people, because most of the people I did not like, you were able to use the dragon to kill someone without getting in trouble for it.

I was hoping the main quest would be beyond that of Oblivion’s main quest. The main quest in Skyrim started out good and stayed that way until you went to retrieve the horn, after that it just spiraled out of control and dive-bombed fast. And I will not go into a rant about, how bad Delphine and/or the Blades are, I would be here for hours typing. The main quest was like, trying to enjoy lemonade without sugar or ice, it was dry and simply bland.

Dragons could have been added as a standard encounter in the wild as you do with wolves, trolls or even bears, but then again lore would not match up correctly. In my opinion, I would have preferred being a part of The Great War, reading the books that sounded like it would have been interesting to take part in.

The main quest in Skyrim also suffers from the Civil War going on at the same time. It was not exactly perfect by any means, but it also caused the player to choose a side, but some players chose not to get involved in such political squabbles. I think throwing in a political squabble with the dragon issue creates too much going on at once, leaving the player confused and disoriented on which is the more important “crisis.”

I remember when I first got Oblivion, I was glued to playing it, hell when I woke up and finished my normal routine, it was back in the game for hours on end. With Skyrim, I can play for a few hours, shut it off and I do not really think too much about it. I just don’t have that same need to play it as I did with the previous game.

Honestly, I do not know what happened; I was super hyped to play it, I get it and after two months, I am already starting to become bored. The main quest, the civil war and some of the side quest I feel are no longer worth investing my time in.

You know, I did the main quest for the Mage’s College and it took me 3 hours to complete it. I did the main quest for the Mage’s College in Oblivion and it took me almost five days to complete it.

I am simply astonished by how beautiful the game is, but when it comes to quests, especially guilds and the main quest, I want to feel like the hero, I want to be the hero; I want to feel like I earned my title in the guilds.

To wrap things up here, I feel like the developers let me down and I just hope the next Elder game makes up for it. I want more in my Elder of the Scrolls game, not less. You can make the world look as beatiful as you want, but in the end the stories are what matter most to me.

I feel like what you're missing is that there are so many MORE options available to you in the beautiful world they gave us. So many MORE quests, so many MORE ways to be helping somewhere across the map and not directly involved in the Dragonborn or Thieves or Dark Brotherhood's plans.

I found that I could choose a side in the civil war or not choose a side and it's interference with my other pursuits was as limited as it would be in the real world for someone who doesn't care about either side or does and hasn't got time to stop and read the headlines. I was still going to know that Ulfric did this or that or that the Empire did this or that and it wasn't going to affect my direction at all.

(One point that's important here: Because of the dynamism of this game you can get the dragonstone and never go to Whiterun until you choose to, whether you speak to the Jarl of Whiterun as you were asked to do in Riverwood or not. Or you can go straight to Windhelm or Solitude and because those chains level with you it's quite possible to finish the civil war by level 6ish and move into anything else you'd rather do and not even be known as the Dragonborn yet or you can head off to the Thieve's guild and be in the Dark Brotherhood before you choose a side or ever climb High Hrothgar.)

I'm not sure if you've got 5 years of wanton and unfulfilled wishes on the game or if you've just played enough hours already to be well and truely tired... I've got to say that I disagree with your flavorless assessment and that I also still understand some of your points. I've made my own adventure for 7 characters and still haven't seen even 75% of the game because there's just so much to see.

I removed the unneccessarily combative opening statement from your post.

You didn't like the main quest. You and a lot of of people in this game, in Oblivion, in Morrowind. I did the MQ in Oblivion twice in my over 1000 hours of play time. Mostly I ignored it. I did it once in Morrowind, also ignored it in hundreds of hours of play time. Have not bothered to progress it in Skyrim much either.

They do a main quest line and faction lines. Not everybody bothers with them. In fact a lot of people will tell you the main quest is not the reason to play the ES games.

Personally, I have only done the Thieves and Mages factions thus far in well over 200 hours of playing. The thieves guild was fun, well written and told a good story, imo. The mage's questline was also actually good, just rather short.

ymmv.

Hey, maybe you're just not into it!
Maybe your expectations were too high.
Maybe it's just not floating your boat.
I'm sure lots of people will post their own experiences and why they love the game or hate it, but ultimately if it isn't working for you, that's all there is to it.
I love the game and from my perspective you're rushing the game by going straight at the main quest. It's only short if you go at it head long. Same with the guilds. The designers know that players get off track and the length of individual quests is completely up to you. You can, and I would say, should get sidetracked. It makes the game better.
Of course, you have to use your imagination. If not it is just , "Go here, get that," etc. You supply the reasons why you do things. There are not a lot of long, scripted, set-piece cutscenes or action scenes.

From your post it sounds like your disappointed with the game, so don't play it if you're tired of it.