Skyrim and every other Elder Scrolls game is huge.. So questmarkers is a good, helpful tool to get to a point.. However i think they should do them less exact..

For example; Player has to travel to Markarth to speak with Bjorn Shieldbash (lol) to get a amulette for the questgiver.. The player should get a quest marker to Markarth.. Nothing more..

I find the questmarker we have now is abit to exact on position.. Why not make it so we enter the city and after that we are on our own to find this dude.. Asking/bribing/threatening guards and civilians, check tavern's and whatnot.. Anything for information.. That would have been more awesome

Then you'd have the dumb people complaining about how it's too hard.

This

That would be fine if the quest description gave enough information....such as being sent to find and speak to John Questkiller Smith:

You can usually find John Questkiller Smith in the local Tavern there

or

You can usually find John Questkiller Smith at one of the market stalls.

Or, alternatively, you could easily be provided a general target area by talking to most of the resident NPCs that would provide that additional location info when speaking to them (add dialogue trees for active quest goals to most all NPC choices).

Otherwise...it would be quite a feat to be sent to a small down anywhere IRL looking for someone by name if there is no address, no telephone listing, no one you encounter references knowing him/her....and ultimately you must try to speak/interact where every single person in town until you simply happen on the person who is the goal of your search.

I realize that the number of NPCs wandering the streets in most Skyrim towns is not extremely prohibitive...but I still would not want to feel that I had to blindly run around identifying random characters (including in taverns/temples and other buildings) simply "hoping" that one of them results in being my intended goal.

Then turn it off, then complain how you cannot find anything.

And asking for directions won't work if said person (like most NPCs) tend to walk around.

I still blame Blizzard for starting this a few years ago in WoW, when they started to put those sparkly things by quest items you had to pick up. Obviously, some players complained that it took too long to find stuff.

I think it's a game design now well accepted to speed up the game play, instead of having to wander around and look for things. Initiative is no longer required on the player's side.

Player: "Are you familliar with the name Bjorn?"
NPC: "Yes ive seen him around the tavern most times.."
NPC: "Never heard of him, you have to ask someone else"

Asking a guard would be beneficial but perhaps close to impossible to get the info out without spend a few septims.. Since i have hard time thinking the guard wanna give direction to an assassin


EDIT: Or better, implement it in the "Options menu" before you launch the actual game..

"Turn off Quest marker"
"Questionable NPC's"

or similar.. THen people can decide what they want

in games with huge numbers of quests you have to either have markers, journals, or both. since, the great morrowind journal system is gone, then, its markers and the ability to turn them off.

imo, the obvious answer is both journals and markers with the ability to turn all off. i'm very disappointed that i can't turn off my radar compass, as well.

It would be nice if you could play the game without quest markers.

But the game would need to be changed to provide some more info. Right now it appears there are some quests that cannot be done without markers.

For example, there is a Companions quest where you need to find someone who left a certain city (I'm being vague to avoid spoilers). So at first I figured I'd go to that city and ask around. But there were no dialog options. I finally looked on the wiki and saw that the only way to find this person out in the wilderness was to use the map marker. Either that or just randomly run into her, which would be pure luck since she was no where near the specified city.

In Morrowind in particular, you were given some directions for everything. Sometimes the directions where vague or wrong, but there was a way to figured things out. That was a particularly good system. Oblivion did the same thing but a bit less well. Still it was done and there was usually not a need to completely rely on quest markers (for example, go find my brother in Cheydinhal, go to Cheydinhal and ask around - oh he's either at this tavern or walking around town, etc.

I wish they didn't exist at all personally, I wouldv'e liked it if we could selectively turn off HUD elements instead of just turning it all off. I like being able to you know, see what stuff is..but I HATE the quest markers and prefer to play without them.

A better journal/quest log would have done wonders also for those of us that don't use the quest markers.

With the advent of voice-acting, quite a few game mechanics became "un-doable". Questionable NPC's being right up there on the list. In morrowind, 99% of dialog was text based. So, it was a simple matter to have a dozen different topics. In Oblivion, voice-acting was one of the 'hype points' of the game, and detailed directions, or, being able to 'ask around' became much more complicated. Not that the voice acting was done particularly well in Oblivion, considering you could get three or four different voices from a beggar in the SAME conversation...... or the lady that was evidently in a horrible panic about her missing husband would instantly be quite calm responding to your request for rumors........

Just like this says turn it off. Just because the quest maker is off doesn't mean you cant do the quest. Good luck trying to find anything, cause as somelse posted just cause they say it it near such & such doesn't mean it is near there. I have got many quest & misc quest open. Some of the I have gotten in Riften & you have to go to Solitude! Try & find item X without any idea where to start looking!

I agree it is for the dumb.
Why just the other day at the supermarket I asked where the Napkins were.Engaged my vastly superior intellect and followed the directions like a champ.

It couldn't possibly be the quest markers are simply the npc pointing at the map.

That being said I agree the marker should'nt be used inside a dungeon .Thankfully I can turn it off

You can turn the compass off on the PC by editing the .ini....
No compass, no quest markers, no hand holding red dots for enemies...that's how I like it...and no compass makes for a clean screen.

I would think that the devs could directly tie marker accuracy to difficulty settings. Just a thought....

i absolutely do not play with mice and keys, lol! nor will i ever, at least, for this type of game.

More's the pity....I absolutely stink with a controller..btw. I try playing on my son's PS3....and die....quickly.