I see you guys trying to spin this, but the fact is you can't. It doesn't look good, plain and simple. Nobody cares how he enjoys playing the game, but when he's representing Bethesda to the media and then tells them how much their dialog svcks, then what is everyone else going to think? It most certainly is unprofessional.

Maybe you don't care, and that's fine, be apathetic about it. But don't pretend this isn't going affect anyone's view on the matter or cement the opinions they already have. It certainly has for me. Bethesda simply is not good writing. They can improve, but they haven't made a game yet where the writing is spectacular, or even average for that matter. GTA has better writing than a Bethesda game. Their plots tend to be as deep as a mission in Call of Duty.

And by the way, with his particular job, it's important to keep your opinions out of the limelight. I mean, I'm all for him playing the game the way he wants to. But defending it as ok is the same as defending someone who changes his facebook pic to a butt-naked dude wearing a santa clause hat and wondering why the human resources rep threw his resume out lol.

Well, we're all looking for any tidbit of news that comes out right? It turns out Pete Hines preferred to skip through the dialog haha.

Welcome to the real world where everyone has a different opinion.

...as well as other companies' games, except for a special few.

But yes, it's still dumb for a supposedly professional PR dude to say something like that. If only because the reactionary masses will do this with it.

(You know, I think it's the emphasis. Some people are reading it as "Beth's dialogue is so bad I can't pay attention to it", whereas I - and some others - are reading it as "I can't pay attention to dialogue unless it's really great." The difference isn't huge, but it's there. )

Hell themain game of NV was boring enough to me. The dialogue and story truely isnt as great as many people make it out to be.

I have a feeling the writing will be bearable like it has been. I tend to pay attention to it like any good RPG enthusiast would lol, get into character, all that good stuff, but this might have another reaction too, from Bethesda themselves. The worst thing they can do to themselves is not listen and then we wouldn't be moving forward. It was a terrible move on Pete Hines part, but sometimes you need to hear it from someone close to you like, "Hey your writing is pretty sub-par you know, focus on that because I tend to skip right pass it." lol That might have a stronger reaction than listening to a bunch of people you don't know, but it might not. Who knows.

As opposed to what? I mean it wasn't classical literature great, but compared to most RPGs it was pretty darn good. Maybe we should make a list of games with decent to great writing and see where New Vegas fits on there. I would definitely put it on the top 10, maybe even next to Fallout 2, but those games wouldn't be too high on my list either. That would be reserved for games like Planescape and Baldur's Gate. Uncharted had great dialog too, but that might not qualify.

I don't have the attention span for long ass dialogue either (especially if it isn't interesting). Glad to see there are people like me working for bethesda game studios. (hint: that part was a joke)

In all seriousness, I never really cared for bethesda's dialogue in the first place. Their writing has always been sub-par IMO and I don't see that changing.

We gotta have hope man. Fallout 4 might offer the best dialog we've ever seen lol.

Yeah, no one really cares how he plays the game, and vice versa. But, he's also not saying that the game's dialogue svcks. This isn't objective fact, it's confirmation bias intended to justify a predisposed, cynical viewpoint that because some PR guy likes to get to the point, it means the game's dialogue svcks.

Him skipping the dialogue can mean he's heard the dialogue so many times from his previous playthroughs, that he would rather just skip it. Space bar-itis, as I like to call it, happened in Fo3, FNV, and Skyrim. It doesn't mean the dialogue is terrible.

The only thing we know is from what has come out of his mouth. And it certainly doesn't anything good about the dialog in the game as far as many people are concerned. It just does not look good, no matter how you spin it, and it certainly doesn't sit well with me because I'm really looking forward to a great, deep RPG experience, and dialog plays a large part in that. Coming from New Vegas, I want more of that. When he says he just skips pass the dialog, it just tells me it wasn't worth listening to, like it wasn't good, like what we've seen from Bethesda for about 15+ years now.

I swear if we get what we got in Fallout 3 I will be disappointed. They had Liam Neeson....and they screwed that up. They screwed it up so bad I forgot they had Liam Neeson in there lol. That's just bad. Not good, just bad.

I'd have story low and dialogue average.

Again as opposed to what? What games are we comparing this to?

No offense, but you're running some serious mental gymnastics to come to those conclusions. I try to see things as a "glass half full" instead of "glass half empty." i.e. I like to think that when a developer makes a note of improving the dialogue of their games, they'll attempt to do so.

lol really? What we've seen in Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout 3, I'm running through some "mental gymnastics" to assume what we've seen for the last 15 years? Really? lol oh jeesh.

edit: And also, I would say I'm pretty optimistic about this title, very excited for it, but I'm also realistic. I'm not going to assume the dialog is going to be any better than what I've seen in their games for a very long time. At the very least, it will be more of the same, and I can deal with that and skip pass the dialog like Pete Hines does lol, but in all seriousness, I don't think I'm even being overly critical here. I don't know very many people that can honestly say the dialog and writing in their games is worth a squat. They're known for their exploration and open-ended design, quests nah.

It will either be better, worse, or more of the same, and everything points toward the latter, but I AM hoping for improved dialog this time around.

I guess it's your own fault for looking at the TES series to deliver dialogue when they've been fundamentally, at their core, dungeon diving simulations.

But, this is what I'm talking about:

That's mental gymnastics.

You do realize trying to use the "compared to what" justification will in no way at all change the experience I had with the game, right?

TES is a quality RPG franchise. To lessen the scope of the series to diminish negative criticism of the game is just doing the game a disservice. I would prefer improvement. There's nothing wrong with pointing out the flaws, especially ones that could use some polish. TES has never been a "dungeon diving simulation" as you put it, a rather poor description of a very innovative and refined RPG franchise as I see it.

I still don't see what you're talking about there. If you got that he simply skipped the dialog because he's seen it so many times, then go ahead and believe that. That seems more like mental gymnastics to me, but I'm not even really going off of what he's saying. As the PR guy, it doesn't look good, and obviously a few many posters here got some pretty negative connotations from it, but I'm mostly looking at that and thinking, "Well, darn, he just skips it, and the writing in their games isn't that good anyway, it just be more of the same."

But again, it might be a lot better than I expect.

lol justification? I'm not trying to justify jack, just want to know what games you think have better dialog, don't be so defensive, what you think I'm going to write a three paragraph response about why you're wrong? If you think the game had bad writing, then sure whatever.

Well, yes and no, The series started out as dungeon diving cRPGs with an emphasis on side quests and character development. That core philosophy has not really changed much in Skyrim, and it's not a really poor description of it at all so much as it is an accurate description of it. Play Arena and Daggerfall and you'll see what I mean. I don't really think it's an issue to want improvement in dialogue, and it's understandable for wanting improvement in Fallout (it's fundamental to that series), but you have to understand that TES was never built around the need for strong dialogue, as sinful as that might sound to some people. TES has incredibly strong lore thanks to Kirkbride and what not, but that's not dialogue

I'm also not saying that that's how Pete Hines intended his statement, what I am offering is a different viewpoint - i.e. he "could" be saying it to mean it in that way. Hell, PH might not even skip dialogue, and he's just pretending to echo the sentiment of someone that does skip dialogue because he has a short attention span. Linguistics and inflection are tricky when it comes to reading and writing.

If a PR guy skipping dialogue is going to rustle your jimmies, and also lead people to believe that dialogue will svck, then fine. But, it's confirmation bias, i.e. interpreting [censored] in a way that confirms one's belief about something. Basing it off of someone's track record is entirely different, but you, and other people, were not doing that to begin with

I think once actual gaming websites start reporting "Pete Hines: Our Dialog svcks", it'll be a gaffe. A dozen dudes lashing out on it in the official forums is just a day in the life.

Which in my opinion is the best thing about it (in premise).

Not really he already stated he doesn't have attention span for long dialog and no where does he state it was due to quality of writing and its likely he was just boasting? about the new real time conversation system hence the "be able to walk away" line. one thread and about dozen people moaning really doesnt class as "many posters" . The only thing he did wrong was he didn't account for the overreacting crowd.

I'm really struggling to see how you (and others) managed to mangle what was said in the article into your conclusions.

Yet the core of Fallout was never an dungeon crawler that usurped every other facet of the game, conversely dialogue was at the core of Fallout and still should be.Now it has been distilled to a phlegmatic voice actor and holophrases...

Ocam's razor suggest that he just got bored of the dialogue upon return to Fallout 3.

With this realization suggesting how important he deems the "walk away" feature in dialogue to be in Fallout 4.