Part of the problem is that Skyrim’s faction questlines often have similar arcs. All it would take is a few extra lines of dialogue here and there to make Skyrim’s faction system far more immersive. The fact that they can assassinate the Emperor of Tamriel without it affecting the Civil War is absurd.

The idea that the player can be both the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood and the leader of the Thieves Guild without anyone ever bringing it up is strange.

The fact that the Dragonborn can be the Archmage of the College of Winterhold and then get kidnapped by the Dark Brotherhood without being able to bring their position up-or have Astrid mention it-is a massive oversight for a game with only a few major factions. Instead, Bethesda needs to find ways to make its factions feel like part of a more believable and immersive ecosystem. The lack of impact each of Skyrim's factions has doesn't mean that each one of Starfield’s factions should have the capacity to conquer the galaxy with the player’s help. A handful of Jarls are replaced, some of the guards look different, but beyond that very little changes. Even completing the Civil War questline for the Stormcloaks or the Imperials only leads to a few small changes. The factions are mainly just launching points for questlines, rather than actual players on Skyrim’s political stage in any meaningful way. Outside of the Skyrim Civil War, these factions aren’t vying for power, and while the player can restore the Thieves Guild, the Skyrim chapter of the Dark Brotherhood, and the College of Winterhold to their former glory this doesn’t actually have any implications for the world at large. The factions in Skyrim’s base game don’t actually change the landscape of the province very much. There are also smaller groups like the Bards College, but the blurry lines between what is a faction and what is just another questline already begins to point to one of the problems with Skyrim's factions. The Dawnguard DLC added the Volkihar vampire clan and the eponymous Dawnguard itself. There’s the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, the Companions, the College of Winterhold, and each side of Skyrim’s Civil War. Skyrim is full of faction-based questlines.

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