To be honest I am really interested in getting through the main plot and then going back and doing the side stuff. Are their any cons to this? would the main story quest lines become too hard if I don't complete the sidequests first to level up? Or will leveling just scale the enemies of the main quest line? thanks.

This game is massive, and the way it works, I think you may find it difficult not to do side quests in the process of working through the 'main plot', of which there are probably several that qualify as major themes.

My suggestion would be to do a mix. The reason I say that is that levelling up will take a while, depending on how you play, but many of the side quests earn you followers, rewards, good gear, etc. There are certain things that you won't get access to in the game if you don't do certain quests or quest streams.

The other aspect is that it is worthwhile to visit the towns and cities early in the game...that will give you an idea of the layout of the place, and give you a look at what's available.

One does not simply walk through the main quest

Personally, I wouldn't worry about the main quest as a priority. Start it by all means, join a faction, whatever, but in between, get out there and enjoy the world. Explore a little. The greatest strength of this game isn't the storytelling and the quest lines, it's the (virtual) physical world itself. Get out in it, just wander for a while, enjoy. If you get bored of that, you still have the big quests to do.

Many people either start the main quest and leave it at some point, or don't start it at all.

I'm 100+ hours in and I have yet to visit the Greybeards in High Hrothgar, or start the Civil War questline. I'm probably going to do all of the other stuff first, and then finish the game off with those two.

Oh no you didn't!

Before I dikeed up my save files, I had 120+ hours on my char, and I hadn't even done the Thalmor Embassy quest yet. My alt was even worse. 50+ hours without doing Bleak Falls Barrow....

Anyway, so far as I can tell, the only issue you may run into would be the cool leveled items you get for killing dragons in the MQ (i.e. Dragonbane). Beyond that, quest away.

I did Bleak Falls Barrow before ever going to Whiterun, while trying to get the golden claw for Lucan Valerius. I didn't know what the dragon stone was for until I looked it up. I wondered why such a lengthy dungeon was available right off the bat. Since it was my first dungeon, I wondered if every dungeon in Skyrim would have such an epic feel.

If you don't at least get to Whiterun and slay the first dragon there, you'll miss out on shouts and the dragon bones/scales for dragon armor.

My advice is to do whatever you want, but try to stick to one guild and/or the main quest for each character and build that character knowing what you are going to do with it. It makes playing the game a lot more enjoyable because you don't wind up the Archmage after only casting one or two spells or at the top of the Dark Brotherhood loudly clanking around in Heavy Armor and a Battleaxe.

Then after you have satisfied yourself with the guilds and main quest, go nuts and do whatever you want with whatever character you want.

You pretty much do.
There is nothing overly indulging about it.

That's why Bethesda created multple save files. Why not do a run through focusing on main quest first. That's what I'm doing.

In most of my play throughs, I have kind of dine many quest simulataneously. On a previous play through, I ignored the main quest until much later. In my most recent one, I'm concentrating on it.

If you're only going to do one play through, then concentrating on the MQ first is probably not the best way to enjoy the game. However, if you plan multiple play throughs, I'd defeinitely recommend that as one of them.

Personally for me the game ends when the main quest ends (i'm wierd like that, among many other ways ) so i finish every faction and sidequest i want to before finishing the MQ. But i suppose the opposite would work too, finish the MQ ASAP so you don't have to feel quilty about picking flowers while Al is eating people

There's no cons in doing the MQ first. There are some shouts and words you can only learn during the MQ, so the opposite does, although only slight.

up to you, you will be able to complete all other questlines even after the main quest.
with one of my char I beat it at lvl 12, LOL

I prefer to do the two main quests first. It gives me plenty of character development (and some very nice shouts) and sets me up for some decent leveled loot when I take on the rest of the world after.

I love to explore the world of Skyrim, but I love loot just as much, and the approach I take lets me have the best of both.

Yeah, but its weird that you just killed Alduin, and now the Companions treat you like you have trouble fighting your way out of a wet paper bag if you do it that way.

On my first Character (level 69) I did the main quest early on, (before level 45), on my second Character (level 58) I've only done the main quest to the western watch tower. To me there really isnt much difference in the enjoyment of how the game is played, it all comes down to a personal play style. On my first Character I completed just about all the major quests, and achievments before I was level 55, and still played until level 69, and to be honest I'm not done yet with this character because I've made it a personal challange to get all my skills to 100. So to me it doesnt really matter when you do any of the quests because there is a ton of things to do to keep the game ineresting.

Do both

The game is not really about the Main Quest, or the Faction Quests, or even the Side/Misc Quests. It is about the world and what you do in it. Which of course can contain the quests I mentioned in the first place. The quests are really just an excuse to get you out in the world so you can do things.

So, do the quests that are interesting to you at the time you want to to do them.

I pick one or two major questlines per character, My warrior has no need to be Archmage, My mage has no need to be an assassin etc.

My latest Character is a mage, I am using bound weapons for close in fighting. He's only doing the MQ far enough to get random dragons to spawn. Then College, and after that, exploring dwemer ruins. One of the Jarl's, to get a house to show off his dwemer finds.

My Warrior on the other hand did the MQ and companions, Finished the MQ and have about 1/2 the companions left.

My assassin/thief Did the MQ to the west watchtower and that's a far as she's going.

Do the MQ anyway that you want to, the only con's to not doing it first is some of the items icluding shout's that you get during the questline.

The devs completed the main quest in about 2 hours. I would assume that they did not do any side quests. So it's definitely possible to do by it's lonesome.

As far is gameplay is concerned, the game suffers tremendously the higher you progress. I would suggest doing ONE faction or guild questline to get some Perks/equipment then going through the MQ.

You saying that along side of your avatar made me giggle As for the OP do a bit of both. Don't try to blow through the main quest, just adventure and travel from town to town as you do the main quest and stop and help some of the residents. You don't have to help them all and sure you can always go back and do the ones you missed, there is nothing wrong with that. But I wouldn't limit myself to just the main quest, you'd be missing out on so much. Wouldn't the dragon born take a little bit of time to stop in each town he comes across and help in any way he could? Think of it more like you are helping Skyrim be a better place vs you are just here to kill dragons.

I always thought it was weird to play a game for 100+ hours before starting the main quest. But for my next TES game that is exactly what I'll be doing. After fiunishing the MQ it took a few hours of gaming to find a purpose again in the world. Of course I was strictly playing to a Nord Warrior character and had ignored most of the guilds. Now I am on a new character to try out different stuff in the game.

It doesn't really matter TBH, the only thing that starting the main quest does is... well make dragons appear obviously, so unless you don't want to fight dragons then yeah go ahead, you can always come back to side quests. Although as some people have said, you will often just accidentally start doing them, because of how interesting some of them are, just play it your way, there is no wrong or right way of doing it

I started the main quest to the point when teh dragon threat is at its highest escalation, and tehn stopped, I did the same with teh civil war too, and then did my side quests, it really made me feel like Iwas ina savage and turbulant area. Doing all the side quests when the dragons are deaded, and teh civil war is over kind of makes you feel a little less epic imo.