I picked The Dark Brotherhood for both polls.

Here is my reasoning:

The Thieves Guild rocks until encountering Karliah.

I did the first six thieves guild quests, 20 larceny jobs for Vex & Delvin, 4 special quests for four major families in Skyrim, and one of Tonilia's quests. I'm not going to do Hard Answers and the rest of the quests because:

1) Hard Answers and nearly all the remaining quests all involve going into caves or dungeons or dwemer ruins and fighting repetitive enemies.

2) I don't want to be forced to worship another Daedric Lord because even though I love this game, there is too much religion in it.

3) I don't want to be the leader of the guild because it doesn't feel like you're the boss. After becoming the boss, you can't command any followers, you still have to report to Vex & Delvin for more jobs instead of being able to get them to do stuff for you, and you can't expel or kill any members who constantly threaten (Ravyn Imyan & Dirge) or condescend (Vekel the Man) you.

I'm planning to become a vampire lord by joining Volkihar Vampire Clan. I'm going to stop after completing The Bloodstone Chalice and a few of the radiant quests to collect artifacts because I don't want to complete that quest line and become the "King" of the castle when in reality, you are a minion. You're a false king because you can't command any followers (except for Serana), give any orders to your subjects (like telling them to wipe out the dawnguard or at least getting them to accompany you while you do it), or kill Vingalmo or Orthjolf for trying to kill you.

The above obstacles have forced me to improvise and create my own story in order to enjoy the game. So my character is basically a highly accomplished member of the Thieves Guild and the Volkihar Vampire Clan but holds no leadership position within either faction. My character enjoys the vast benefits of being a member of both factions and feels comfortable with his role.

And I'm looking forward to becoming the Listener of The Dark Brotherhood because you take orders directly from the source: The Night Mother. People perform rituals and pray to her and she tells you their names and location. And then you can at least choose from one of two initiates to follow you while you carry out the contract. You keep every septim earned and you know more about the faction's business dealings than anyone else. This is critical: as a leader, it is important to know more than the other members and as the Listener, you do know more because you're the only one who can listen to the Night Mother. With the two factions discussed above, you have no idea about anything until someone tells you about it and that's perfectly acceptable if you're not in a leadership position.

The Dark Brotherhood could do a better job to make you feel like the boss but it is miles ahead of the above two factions. And I loved this quest line the most because you really feel like a fearsome assassin, especially after taking down the Emperor.

I don't feel comfortable leading the companions or the college for a few of the same reasons as above but it's great and a lot of fun to be a member of each one. (A different character joins these two factions.)

And I don't care about the civil war because it just doesn't feel like war.

To conclude, I completed every quest from the major quest lines with my first few characters over a year ago and I enjoyed it overall, but there were a few issues that I corrected for future characters.

Dark Brotherhood for both here too.

The story is very well paced, the characters seem like real people. Interesting people. By the end, its hard not to care about the other characters. The story had a good beginning, a middle narrative that moved swiftly but remained stable, Culminating in complete and utter devastation unimaginable from the start, only to rise to a grand triumph at the end.

Theres no "So we're just gonna pretend that Eye of Magnus stuff never happened then?" or "How, exactly, does the skeleton key do that...?" or a werewolf guild where the only real point of the quests is to get cured of the thing they forced you to do for reasons which were never quite clear..

None of that nonsense. The story holds together and does so well, from the very start to the very end.

...Except for the people who you had to kill to make up for the Grelod murder. Any of them you leave alive just stay there for the whoel game. That kinda svcks.