You have the choice in this game to either join the Stormcloaks or the Imperials, which got me thinking, why are there no alternates to the main guilds.

Think about it. I travel to Riften and i do not want to join the thieves Guild, why is there no opposing force i can join to take down them down.

The companions set out to destroy the Silver Hand, but why can i not join the Silver Hand
if i do not like the companions, or what they stand for.

The mages guild in Winterhold. The residents of Winterhold are always complaining about the college, so if i have no interest in magic why is there no option to join the town and rid Winterhold of there mages.

You could use this template for every faction in the game, which would not only give you more quests but also give the game much more reply value (there is alot of that already) and help with roleplaying.

Whats peoples thoughts on this.

I agree, that would have been fun.

Reminds me a bit about the rivalry between the Fighters Guild and Thieves Guild in Morrowind (or the Imperial Cult and the Temple and the Mages Guild. etc.). Even if becoming a member in one would affect your standing in another would be neat. I'm hoping they expand upon the Vigilants of Stendarr in the DLC. I'd love to go after some of the Daedric Princes. (or maybe you already can - I haven't played every quest for every faction/mini-faction, so forgive me if I'm speaking out of turn).

If you take an arrow to the knee you can take on the thieves guild..

Please do not post Spoilers in General.

People come to General to learn about the game without learning about what happens in the game. If they want to know about what happens, that is what the Cheats, Hints and Spoilers section is for.

Do not use quest details or location specific details related to quests/puzzles/NPCs in your posts in this section. General is for discussing gameplay and mechanics and general topics about the the game including but not limited to races, items and their use, magic, enchanting, skills, character builds, criticism, praise, funny random things that happen, places from an esthetic standpoint and and other general topics.

Use the Spoilers Section if you have to post quest details or other spoilers or a thread about the same. I will move this now.

I know I'd like to join the Summerset Shadows instead of the Thieves Guild. They just felt so much more exotic in the land of skyrim.
Other rival factions would have been fun to join. Like the Silver Hand/Glenmoril Witch Coven, Penitus Oculatus, The Caller's Renegades etc.
Having choice above choice is always good. Especially when it's featured in games. And Dragon Age: Origins would prove this well.

Err...there aren't any you can join to take them down, but there are opposing factions.

Thieves Guild vs. Laila Law-Giver vs. Summerset Shadows
The College of Winterhold vs. The Stormcloaks (they hate magic) vs. The Synod vs. The College of Whispers
Dark Brotherhood vs Penitus Oculatus (you *can* help them though)
The Blades vs. The Thalmor

But I agree with you. There should be another side to the factions.

It would have been good to help Mjoll get rid of the Thieves Guild (makes more sense as Laila Law-Giver is kicked out if Empire wins the war).
Dark Brotherhood can be taken care of but it's not exactly a long or difficult mission.
The College I wouldn't like to see removed but it would have also been nice to be able to improve relations with Winterhold.
As for the Companions, I'd have liked the option to do the quest line without having to become a werewolf. (Much as vampirism was offered to DB members in Oblivion, but wasn't compulsory to advance the quest line).
As for the Blades, I guess you have Blades vs P'nax.
The Thalmor...well, an expansion or DLC where you can take them on properly would be a thing of beauty.

This is in the spoiler section no?

it has been moved, it was originally in General.

gamesas has never been good about giving the player a hand in contentious factions. There was some talk back in Morrowind's early development (I did an interview with its team) about making either/or situations, where you could join House Telvanni or the Mage Guild, the Thieves or House Redoran, etc, with the object eventually of having a kind of subdued turf battle that the PC could join in. Nothing came of it, however, even if we're told that these groups hate one another. It was just too resource-intensive--by which I mean development resources. Think of all the alternate paths of development they would have had to work on to make the thing really take off, when static guilds required only quests.