Uh? No. Genre's evolve all the time and has become quite the melting pot the last few years in all kinds of media. It can be taking on a role as someone else, portraying yourself in that role or letting the role be the character and you its moral compass. Or you can just portray yourself in that role, either as who you want to be or who you are in real life. There are probably a 100 different possibilities to roleplay. Your views won't change that.

Uh, yes. Nothing you say is going to change the set definition of role play. If you want to, maybe you should write to a dictionary company.

Roleplay: To create or be given a character and do what they would do and what is in their prerogative, not yours. Basically, acting and staying in character. Limiting my character(s)=limiting my role playing.

By this definition, ALL Final Fantasy games aren't Role-Playing games because you have a set character with histories.
Metro 2033, Bioshock 1 and 2 ARE Role-Playing games because you are a silent protagonist.
Doom and Duke Nukem play almost identical but Doom is an RPG because you have a silent protagonist while Duke Nukem comments every now and then so it's only an FPS.

Fallout 4 contains RPG Elements. Levelling up, Skill building, Exp, Items... It's an RPG.

Be given a character, which is what I said. Either create (like a Bethesda RPG) or be given (like some jRPGs). It's the first line of the definition...

I'm interested in seeing how this works for mods. I'm guessing they'll have to squeeze in full player dialogue on the wheel somehow.

Having a voiced character helps me role-play most of the time - especially when I pick a female character. Without that it's just me and my voice reading dialogue. It's the same for the male character though. I don't get much emotional punch without someone voicing the characters and when full dialogue is present on the screen I read that much faster than someone can say it so I just end up cutting people off.

For me this will actually be a big improvement in storytelling and role-play both.

I don't like the voiced protagonist in games like Fallout or TES because I think if you're going to let me name a character, decide what they look like, what their attributes are, and what skills they use, it seems fitting to let me decide what they sound like too. Games that don't allow for that much character customization are fine, because at the end of the day you're just playing that character, not building your own.

But moving beyond a question of design philosophy and into the specifics of Fallout 4, I'm not impressed by what Berhesda has shown of us of Mr. Delaney's performance. I know we've seen a very small amount, but I think if you're making a radical change to your game like this, you'd want to include samples that get people excited about the change. I also think that from a marketing perspective, it doesn't make sense to show the bad parts of the performance and bury the good. Shouldn't you want the good stuff in the spotlight?

Mods aren't the solution for everything, especially when it's still only guaranteed one platform will get them. Xbox One is going to be a guinea pig, and there's always the chance things just don't work out. And even if they do, it still requires Sony allowing them on PS4 and mods actually working on it to actually be a solution that a reasonable majority will actually have access to. Even then, I doubt think the ability to mod the game should be used as an excuse for bad design choices, just like I don't think that the Unofficial patches excused Skyrim being held together by chewing gum and paper clips when it shipped.

I hear ya, and I do think it's still a justified concern. Keep in mind we've seen very few (and timid) scenes from F4 thus far. One thing I would suggest is checking out the interviews both main actors have conducted in regards to F4. They're friggin hilarious and go into the voice acting process. It definitely put to rest my concerns for the game. It honestly seems like you have come to a conclusion already based on very little information available; I would just suggest to keep an open mind until more gameplay is revealed - or until reviews pour in if you want to wait that long.

To be completely honest though, this discussion is rather pointless for two reasons: 1) it's already in the game and not going anywhere, and 2) more importantly, it will be modded out. I pretty much guarantee that. Someone, somewhere, fairly early after release, will mod out the voice acting and dialogue wheel in favor of dialogue akin to F1 - FNV.

I don't expect this to happen in any way of practical importance; doing so would probably require a script rewrite ~or not be worth it. Script rewrites would [should] entail improved NPC responses as well, and those new lines are expected to be voiced.

I don't see the point of mods that cripple the voice, if the main contention is that the script was written with voiced PC in mind. It won't improve the script.

I think that a mod that replaces the paraphrased dialog choices would be a good thing to have though.

For me making the vanilla content and modded content look the same would be the point. I'd rather use a mod that makes the protagonist universally silent than have modded protagonist dialogue stand out like a sore thumb because it's the only thing unvoiced.

Unfortunately, I'm skeptical on the ability to silence the protagonist in an acceptable manner, given the paraphrased dialogue choices. I imagine we will have to live with it, and mods will be forced to reuse existing voice assets.

That was an early concern, and it's true. What the community needs (if there is one), is to get decent impersonators for both, to upload a script of plot-glue voice assets if Bethesda doesn't offer this on their own. Modders can also try to arrange conversations to be light on PC verbal input (for where they just can't get situation specific dialog for the PCs). Not great, but not abysmal.

Again, most of your comments will be standard phrases: Yes, no, I do it for 200 caps, I might do it later, tell me more, tell me about yourself, what do you have to trade cover the basic.

Tweak the NPC dialogue so it don't require unique responses and you are golden. This will require a few compromises however the 4 responses only and that you select is not that your say will actually make this easier.

Shepard's voice is seriously one of the most boring and bland voices I've ever heard in anything ever.

I have hope! Low intelligence dialogue is a Fallout tradition that's as old as the hills. I doubt they'd scrap it in the name of making the story cinematic.

Well, Bethesda did have only 1 low intelligence dialogue check in Fallout 3...

Oh sweet jesus I wasnt aware of that... I never did low intelligence runs in 3, only New Vegas.

Why would ANYONE play with Low int in 3 if theres no funny lines? Theres no upside.

You'd have to be a masochist roleplayer.

I actually just thought of this, but I wonder how this will affect community mods? Since the player character is voiced, it seems like story or character based mods would be a tad bit restricted in what content they would include. I suppose modders could insert full lines of dialogue for moments when the main character would speak.

I'm not entirely skeptical because from what we do know they have an experienced writer doing VD work to help steer emotional lines and dialogue. KalEl Bogdanove is his name I think, he's written stuff for the Star Craft IP, DC Comics, and his Dad was a marvel writer I believe so he's influenced heavily by that.

You probably disagree but I personally feel that from what little we've heard from both VA's, they've been stellar. It's nice that for the male VA, we're not getting a Nolan North or a Troy Baker (both great VA's but just I'm tired of hearing them).

Delaney just sounds bored to me. Like he really doesn't want to be there. The only time he gets out of that bored delivery is when the bombs fall.

The more I think know about it, the more I think it would have been awesome to have Ron Perlman voicing the protagonist.

So Witcher is not a RPG for you? Or Mass Effect? Dragon Age II?

I think you are mistaken. Roleplaying is simply playing the role ~what that role is need never be up to the player; though it can be ~in some games.

An RPG need not allow the player to invent the PC; and in fact, the best RPGs that I know of ~don't.

Courtenay Taylor is the VO artist that does/did the voice of Starla on Regular Show.
I am sold on that alone. Lady's got range.

Also, now I will need to make a Starla build.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY83byX1K-U is how you're trying to convince us the voice actor is qualified and has range?

Anyone can do a voice like that. Just speak from the throat.

Here's her full listing: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1057696/

That's range.

I rather like it... People are so teen emo and feelz these days. Was nice to hear an advlt.

To be fair, Shepard is a commander and he/she has to be stoic and firm. If he/she starts going, "OMG WHAAA THE REAPERS! WHAAA I SCARED, TOO MUCH FOR MEEEE!!!" then the crew will think s/he's seriously lost it.