Poorly. The only game from Bethesda that has had decent dialogue is Fallout 3, both from the PC and NPC's. Skyrim is ok, nothing more than that. That is why i don't understand why people is freaking out over a silly comment like this. First of all Pete Hines is a PR guy for Bethesda Softworks, he is not involved in development other than checking out the product from time to time. Its been stated so many times that Todd Howard and his team is free to spend alot of time and money on each game. This won't really change anything and is yet another excuse to make drama.

He thinks dialogue is boring because it's true.

Exactly. Dialogue is nothing but information dump and has not enough interactive value yet.

I want organic dialogue where NPCs talk like real people and where you have the option to say as much stuff as the other one. Instead it's always: You ask a question/say something, then the NPC answers with 10.000 lines that lead nowhere except giving you information.

Bad voice acting and writing add their bit of trash into the mix of course.

I wish they'd take a deep long look at Planescape Torment and it's dialogue and takes notes of it.

That game had tons of text to read through and yet it never felt like a chore and instead had me coming back for more.

The baseline is simple - it's not about the quantity of dialogue, it's about the quality. Many gamers have been playing for some time and sadly the older you get, the more games you've played, stories read, movies seen - the more storylines "get old" and repetitive since you've seen them before and "been there, done that".

The challenge here is to find something unique and interesting to keep the players attention and that usually involves a good interpersonal communication between characters, worthwhile characters, and to a lesser extend some grand storyline itself.

I'm still waiting for Bethesda to catch up on this part of game-making. They do amazing work at world-building and sandbox-environment, but most of the characters I'm meeting in the games are - even if interesting at first glance - rather shallow. I wish they offered more opportunities to get to know their characters, backgrounds, motivations etc. Beyond what's there because it's related to a quest or trading or to hear the latest rumors.

Did Pete Hines seriously just say that?

He... He doesn't even think that his own studio's dialogue is good...

So he just wants to walk away from it...

He's so "BLECH!" about his own studio's dialogue... That he just wants to walk away from it.

This is hilarious and awful at the same time.

He does not say that, nor does he even imply it.

Well, he knows his audience. Writing and dialogue ain't going to be major selling points for Fallout 4 anyway, unlike say Shadowrun: Hong Kong.

I can't believe some people on these Bethesda Softworks forums still do not know that Gabriel77Dan makes a lot of jokes sometimes and is not being serious at all.

Gabriel77Dan is making a joke as in him thinking that the dialogue, main quests, and side quests might be bad in Fallout 4, with no choices and consequences.

Which is what I'm afraid of. I hope that both the main quests and side quests in Fallout 4 have choices and consequences on the choices I make.

Actually as far as I know Gabriel77Dan he is mostly not joking ... and now to the total unpopular opinion.

Obsidian managed it to bore me with their DLC intro dialogues, espescially Dead Money where the first dialoge for the real starting NPC goes over nearly about 1 hour without giving much information or even add to the setting. Yes that's the point where even I choose the shut up option.

I'm not joking. He says that when he comes across his studio's dialogue then he just wants to skip it, and now he can! But he's not opposed to all dialogue. No no no. If the dialogue is by someone like Naughty Dog then he's interested. But he doesn't say the same about his own studio's dialogue. In fact, that's why he's so glad he can now skip it.

He doesn't need to flat out say it. It is obvious what he means. He is a freaking PR guy and he didn't even try to redeem his studio's dialogue or why players should pay attention to it. Nope. Instead he just practically goes "good riddance".

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Just read the quote. He says he wants to skip dialogue because he doesn't have the attentionspan for it when it comes to his own studio's games, but he says he will make an exception for other studio's which means he 'does' have the attention span for long dialogue, just as long as it isn't Bethesda dialogue. Why else would he promote that "hey guys! You know how you wanted to skip our dialogue? Well now you can!"?

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Let me explain it a little bit better; If your dialogue is crap then you do not [censored] invent a damn "skip dialogue" button. Instead, you start providing better dialogue. But once again, Bethesda would rather go the easy route and find some way to a short-cut of their own bad design decisions than the hard route and try to improve their games.

Think about it. This is a thing. They're including a button to skip the dialogue because they know their dialogue is bad.

Instead of actually producing better dialogue so that it won't be bad, they'd rather just give a skip dialogue button.

And that speaks volumes about what Bethesda's goals are with their games as well as what they prioritize.

Sometimes I can't simply force myself through dialogue. Especially New Vegas (Yes I know it's not from BGS) but the dialogue in that game is just flat out awful.

Old World Blues is the worst, yes they are funny, but damn 30 minutes with talking before we actually get to the point. I do enjoy dialogue heavy games, but sometimes its best to have it abit more contained and not throw out 10 minute rants in each conversation.

So you are sayinbg Obsidian includeded a button to skip the dialogue (which I mentioned earlier) because they know their dialogue is bad. While I agree (in the cases I mentioned) I assume you lost some friends here or jump as mostly to early to conclusions which aren't backed by facts anyway (FO4 isn't out yet).

Let there be rants if they fit (in OWB it was multiple characters interacting so it made sense - still the execution was boring and could have well been a cutscene - choice was but an illusion)! Just give the PC the option to interrupt it with dialogue and continue the conversation.

Otherwise I'd love clean and simple answers by NPCs. One or two or three sentences. Everything above that needs a certain vindication.

And it's not just about answers.

The classical pathfinder NPC is dead, let the information dumpster die too.

It was part of the interaction with a specific NPC. Hardly the same thing. It's like having an NPC which just drones on and on about something then telling the NPC to shut up and ending dialogue is part of the interaction with the NPC. Does your character have the patience to listen to him or does your character feel impatient about this rant that goes on for longer than it has to? It's a choice meant to define the player character as well as to possibly cement your relationship with the NPC in question.

There's a big difference between that and a button which you can use to skip any and all dialogue.

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Oh and if Obsidian were to do this for practically the same reason then I would call them out on their [censored] too but I would be confused why they think their dialogue is so bad it needs to be skipped (as I love their dialogue). But even if hypothetically they did do the same thing, guess what? It doesn't excuse Bethesda doing this.

It's part of the interaction in FO4 too at least from what we have seen to date and taking similarites to Skyrim (which is a guess) and sorry spacebar works in NV too .

We get it your not happy at all with the dialogue system in Fallout 4. I'm not either. The main quests and side quests are poorly written in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim so I believe the main quests and side quests will also have no choices and consequences in Fallout 4.

I just wish choices and consequences happened depending on the choices you make . I would love a lot to see if I do side quests to protect a town from raiders if I don't protect that town at all then the raiders take over the town and I fail that side quest.

I don't know, do you think he might skip his own company's dialog because he already knows what they are going to say? I would bet it is the same reason we all try to skip the dialog if we have heard it before. First time through I listen unless I can read it faster than it is said, after that, "Hi, can I-" click-select-click.

I feel like Obsidian did more handholding with dialogue then Bethesda did to be honest. Like Dead Money and Father Elijah explaining everything the whole setting etc etc etc. I am like "Yes i know. I talked to Veronica and the Elder. I read your freaking databases and i was at Helios One." I really enjoyed it in Skyrim that you could just tab out of a conversation and leave.

Exactly. It's just like skipping a cutscene. You wouldn't do anything yourself anyway.

That is the problem with info dialogue. Characterization of NPCs, story explanation, etc is also info dump btw.

There are many methods to avoid, to make this this info dump boring you don't have to rely on dialogue only, thats actually something that Bethesda is pretty good at it. Telling stories with the environment and your interaction with it.

I loved all the audio logs in Fallout 3, it was great. I can get alot of info and interesting storytelling while moving from A to B. There are like 10 audio logs in the whole of New Vegas?

Yeah, and that's 'him'. 'He' has seen his studio's dialogue before. The players haven't. Do you really think it sends the right message to potential buyers to say he practically can't stand his own studio's dialogue so they implemented a button specifically for it? Like, "hey, everyone aboard the hype-train, just wanted to let ya'll know that you can skip our dialogue now, isn't that great!?" What kind of message does that send exactly? It doesn't matter how many times he's seen Fallout 4's dialogue because he's doing an interview in order to increase hype from people who 'haven't' played Fallout 4 yet. You do not go out to your fans and go "yeah the combat is really boring actually, I go back to Fallout 3 and find it equally boring and now it is also boring, so I'm trying to avoid combat all together". So why would he say the same thing about the dialogue?

I love a lot the books, journals, notes, and directions given by NPC's in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and the audio logs in Fallout 3. The way that Bethesda Game Studios did it for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is excellent.

That's a little concerning, I guess. But to be honest I'm about as down on the dialog system as it's possible to be anyway, I'm kinda maxed out.

Wasn't it rumored that dialogue will happen in real time? That makes sense that we'd be able to walk away then. Ya know, while we're being shot or hit with something