It's pretty obvious that the devs planned for Whiterun to be the main location in the game - it's central in Skyrim, you get there almost instantly and the house is ridiculously cheap. But if that was the plan, why does Whiterun so abnormally svck?

The house is a joke. Two book shelves, two weapon racks, no mannequins, no enchanter's table. You have to run all the way up to Dragonsreach to disenchant/enchant items.

Furthermore, shops are a joke. One alchemist, one general store and one mage... they'll never have enough money to buy all the crap you have. Usually I take all gold from Arcadia, then I take all gold from the Breton dude and I still have potions left to sell. And I'm no alchemist - all that comes from dungeon raids.

Instead of shops where we can sell stuff, we have two blacksmiths and a fletcher. I hope I don't need to say how pointless that is - blacksmiths buy weapons/armor and so does the fletcher, so it's pretty much double redundancy.

I mean seriously, that's supposed to be "the trading hub for the entire province"?

Pretty much every major city in the game is better than Whiterun, offering a better house and better shops. But they're all on the edges of Skyrim.

I believe it's designed well to be sufficient for a starting character, but with better options to grow into. If the beginner town was the best option, you would be here complaining about the fact that there was no reason to go anywhere else.

i recently moved to solitude, been happy ever since,

My biggest issue is the enchanting table and I wouldn't mind another general merchant. Otherwise, Whiterun isn't bad.

For the reason's you've listed is the exact reason the house there is so cheap.

Though i do agree it seems a bit dull for the 'Trading Hub of the Entire Province'

Wow, really?

Can you give me winning national lottery numbers as well?

White run has everything you need, problem is that store keepers are poor like hell and at somepoint you can't sell anything for theyr proper price the house is what you pay for for the gold you spend in it you can't expect a house like the one in Solitude or Windhelm

Towns in Skyrim ARE underwelming.

Whiterun is probably still the best of the lot. Rorkstead is composed of three houses and yet it's called a village. Winterhold is a hold despite being no bigger than that. Solitude and Riften are pretty small and underpopulated, despite being in separate cells.

The house in Whiterun is meant to be acquired cheaply and by anyone.

The good thing about cities with bad traders: Khajiit caravans, they buy and sell from just about every category. And yeah the house isn't that nice, its small and lonely, even with Lydia, but It's weird that I spend so much time there and don't even remember why.

Oh no i have to run all the way to dragonsreach for enchanting.. (can even fasttravel if your really lazy)

* One General Store
* One Alchemist
* Two blacksmith's
* One mage
* Two taverns

I think its pretty descent really for a small town.. (I dont call them city in this game)

I love Whiterun, its easy to navigate, descent people with nice intrigues for the gaming experience and so on..

You asked for our opinions, don't know why you have to be ignorant.
Anyways, there is also the drunk huntsman who is also a merchant, and Whiterun is supposed to be one of the 1st towns you visit if you follow the storyline....and if you don't like Whiterun, do like what we do in RL: MOVE!

There are three blacksmiths... Mr. White-Bear in the Warmaiden is a seperate blacksmith if his wife isn't in the room too.

Also you can sell weapons at both the Drunken Huntsman and Belethor's as well.

I just came back from selling my 30 enchanted iron daggers there.

The central location hardly matters when you can just fast travel anywhere, does it?

I counted the blacksmith at the entrance as one as they have the same cold storage (I sell out the lady, he inside seem to have 15 septims as well)

Weird, I just sold a bunch of my daggers to her till she was out of cash, and then went inside and sold some more to him. I seriously JUST did this like ten minutes ago, so I'm not misremembering or anything.

That's funny, I do that a lot too. Love that grind. Easy peasy.

Are you kidding? Whiterun is one of the best towns in Skyrim. All the minor hold capitals are ridiculous...

How do you know it was the plan? You can't say it's the main city only because it's in the center of Skyrim. You get there instanlty because you have to get SOMEWHERE instantly. The house is cheap because it's probably the first house you'll buy and because it's so lacking compared to other houses.

Oh? So you're contradicting your first sentence. If every city is better than Whiterun, why on Earth do you think Whiterun is supposed to be the main city? Once again: only because of its central location?
I have an advice for you. If you don't like Whiterun, move somewhere else.

Personally, I visit Whiterun only when a quest requires it. I moved out of Breezehome as soon as I could buy Honeyside and never came back. I don't mind that it's so far away, I'm usually busy exploring anyway.

Actually, Whiterun has quite a bit as far as mechants. The vast majority of sales you'll need to make are weapons and armor:

1 general goods
3 blacksmiths (don't forget the guy inside Warmaiden's- his money pool is separate from Adrianna's)
1 fletcher

That's 5 different places to sell weapons and armor. The only thing that's really limited is gems/jewelry and mage type items. Only one guy to buy those from you (aside form Belethor, assuming he still has money), and he's in Dragonsreach. Still, most of those items aren't very heavy, so you don't need to off-load them as often. A trip to the college is sufficient to get rid of all that stuff, as well as stock up on empty soul gems, which is also a bit lacking in Whiterun. All in all, Whiterun is a GREAT place to bring your dungeon loot to.

As for the house: yes, it's small. I wish there was an option to actually expand the size of it (for an appropriate price, of course), but I long ago modded the enchanting table into it. The location of the house and Whiterun itself is just too awesome to not use it all the time. I think I'll even have my wife move there from our home in Markarth just so I have another general goods merchant close by.

Whiterun is home to the Companions, and a traditional place of warriors and fighting. That's why they have more blacksmiths than any other city.

I think you are bugged. Both of the smiths as warmaidens have separate gold accounts in my game.

I live in Whiterun, been living there since the beginning, I feel like I should move, but I'll miss it too much (I have other reasons). Anyways, I can live somewhere else with my next character.

Same in mine, though sometimes it seems to clear out both. Not sure which way is bugged though. When it happens I usually just don't worry about it, and it works correctly (they have separate gold) the next time.

Sure, I'll look up last weeks for you.

I've been using Whiterun as a base for all my characters, great selection of shops, plenty of blacksmiths and the best bit is when you fast travel there the blacksmith is handy and you don't have to run a mile to get to your home. Only annoyance is I have to go to Riverwood as he is the only merchant I can find with over 10,000 gold.

When on earth they don't have your own houses as fast travel location I will never understand, you can fast travel to five hundred other spots on the map but they must have thought that no one would ever want to go directly to the house they own, right!.

Wow could you be anymore rude? Whiterun is suppose to be a central hub you could move west and support the Imperials in Solitude or do something else but they had to make Whiterun vanilla because its the first city and eventually you'll make a decision to move elsewhere.