sometimes break my immersion from what I'm doing in the game. I've had this game since it first came out and recently picked it back up again to continue where I left off and now I remember why I took a break from it. I don't know if it's because the series has become popular and the company has a ton of money to put towards scripted events and voice acting or they just wanted to experiment, but I really did not enjoy the college of mages or thieves guild quests in this game.

The college is very different from the mages guild of previous games. Now you're surrounded by a bunch of your typical fantasy fare wizards who lock themselves up in their towers conducting research all day. Meanwhile you're searching for a powerful lost artifact that comes to a head with the obvious antagonist. The thieves guild is the same way except they are smug and flawless. It wasn't until I was dealing with a certain dark elf that I began to notice Beth cutting down down on some of the things that made one of the previous games feel alien and that is using British or Scottish voice actors that you see hear in nearly every fantasy game.

You make some good points. I think they were trying to make it so that each faction could be something you could eventually take charge of. The big flaw there is once you do, most still treat you like a second class citizen, a noob that just walked through the door. my Harbinger of the Companion characters still get mocked by the guards "So you what, fetch the mead?" If it wasn't for RPing that my characters are good and trying to set an example I'd kill that stupid guard and take a nap in jail for a couple of hours.

I think the big thing for me is most of the factions have you swearing loyalty to a daedra or divine at some point. This can break immersion for me.

Though I actually like the thieves guild quests. You can drag out that story for quite some time. Usually for me by the time I've encountered a certain dunmer, I've gotten much of the radiant quests done and have merchants in the flagon.

Still there are so many plot holes a lot is taken on faith. They could have left the core of the story in tact and made it much harder to complete. But that might have only been enjoyable to some.

Glad I wasn't the only one who feels that way. The way they handled the quests in guilds left a bad taste in my mouth since they seemed a lot bigger than they were.

I really hope they go back to using the raspy voices for dark elves in the next game.

1. Well, considering there's no scientist-like NPCs, what else do you want the wizards to do in their spare time?

2. I don't think ''smug and flawless'' fits a guild on the brink of extinction.

I've always secretly disliked the idea of becoming "the head" of a guild. The heroes of the main story probably have better things to do than the endless tedium that comes with being responsible for an organization.

Since I usually play warrior type characters, I "roleplay retcon" the College such that my character simply becomes "a friend of the college". An adventurer that doesn't know any magic (except for that scroll based parlor trick at the gate) but has been damned handy to have around. What with all the book fetching, elder scroll hunting, errand running, and foe-slaying...