When I first entered Whiterun, I was amazed at how lifelike the town was and how realistic the NPC conversations were compared to Oblivion. For a few days of constantly playing the game, it was AMAZING.

Now that I've played the game a while, I've heard everything that everybody has to say. I have effectively used up all of the voice acting; there is no more to enjoy. This isn't a problem with the amount or quality of the voicing, this is a problem with how it is dispensed.

As an avid metalworker, I make trips from my home to the local forge at War Maidens^TM. As many of you know, there are several small children who play just outside the smith's shop. One of them (most likely the leader, or "alpha child") Spouts the same line several times during the course of my ~20m stroll to the forge. It goes a little like this:

"I help my mom work in the market; It's hard work but it's usually fun!"

This, and many other scenarios like this have made the voicing stale for me. I find myself giving NPCs a wide berth so as not to initiate the same old lines I've heard over and over. It reminds me more and more that it's just an actor reading off a script. Jon Battle-Born isn't speaking to me because he's upset with others' preoccupation with death, he's speaking to me because a voice actor read that line off a script and the game is telling him to say that when I walk by. This is magnified when NPCs repeat their lines, as they will often do whilst I'm sharpening my blade or forging some armour. The only NPC who I found fully realistic and enjoyable to be around was the late Eorlund Gray-Mane, and he has since mysteriously passed away.

Another thing is behaviour. If you were walking down the street and someone abruptly ended their conversation to turn around and make eye contact with you, would you see that person as normal? What if they told you their life's story? The townsfolk of Skyrim clearly sit very high on the autistic spectrum because they don't have any understanding of how to properly behave in a social setting. They're like your weird classmate who's constantly talking about his bug collection, oblivious to the lack of [censored] being given.

In summary Bethesda, you have taken great writing and vocal talent, and squandered it. When you made NPCs spout their lines every time I walk by, you wrote a cheque you couldn't cash. I'm only three days into this game and the voice acting is already dreadfully annoying. Please make it so most NPCs will only tell their story once prompted, and if unprompted have them tell it only once. I've lived in Whiterun for three in-game months and the captain of the guard still feels like he has to tell me who he is.

DISCUSS

Fixed the font, didn't realize it was so painful to read in big posts.

I find this annoying to some degree as well, i wouldn't mind seeing a mod changing this behavior.

But everyone got an arrow in their knee. Give them some slack.

"HEY YOU! YEAH, YOU! STOP! I need to tell you something...

I help my mom work in the market. It's hard work but it's usually fun!"

"...Who the hell are you and why should I care?"

NPCs should have a set of 'greeting prompts', and mainly use those over telling me their life's story.

"Hello"
"Good day"
"Greetings"
etc.

NPCs should also have a friendliness and politeness factor. Meaning unfriendly ones will say nothing, or 'greet' in an unfriendly fashion.

"Get out of here"
"Move along"
*Spit*

etc.

You could also include 'repeat' functions. Pass someone a second time that day?

"Why hello again"
"I thought I told you to stay away from here?"
or say NOTHING. I didn't stop to talk the first time, so drop the friendliness a bit.

If I pass someone on the sidewalk, I'm going to say "Hello" or "Good day", to basically everyone. It is a comment in passing, usually returned, and we both go on our way. Neither one of us stops and spills out a life story. (Yes, I'm Canadian. We're a friendly bunch.)

"I'm not scared of you" and this whimsy little [censored] says it when I have full dark brotherhood armour on with dual ebony swords.

When I walk up to an NPC, they should be "Yes, do you need something?"

They shouldn't be telling me their life story.

Well it's not as annoying as your font!

But replacing all the "unique" greetings with a simple "Hello" or "Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening" would be such a relief.
Especially for NPCs that are total [censored] [censored]s. Such as that Redguard that keeps going on about his precious Cloud District, or that kiddo you mentioned.

Yes.

God yes.

I want people to leave me alone when I'm cruising a town.

Yes, please.

Where in Canada? No one in Montreal does that. Hell, I'd find it wierd if some random person said hi to me on the street.

OT: I agree, it got somewhat annoying after playung for a while. I especially hat it when an NPC comes spouting some random nonsense when I'm in the midle of a conversation with someone else, and they're somehow louder than the guy I'm talking to

Nazeem is so far the only NPC I killed due his repetitive and teeth-gritting same line he utters to you when you are nearby his vicinity. Also, his behaviour towards others actually pulled me through the notion of slaying and decapitating where he stood without being detected. I doubt anyone will miss him.

As much as I love this game, this is really starting to wear on me. After 80 hours I want to kill some people, and when you're in an inn trying to listen to one person but walk too close to anyone and trigger it all talking over each other, I want to tear my hair out.

There's got to be a mod to regulate this in a logical way.

I've actually found quite a few NPCs that properly greet as well as the ones who are like "Why should I talk to you after all that you've done?" or whatever it is. Though I do agree that these need to be used on a much larger scale.

Actually, you're very much right. I even prefer the Mudcrab conversations from Oblivion to this. In Oblivion the NPC's just greeted you according to how much they liked you with a short word or two, and instead all the NPC's had conversations between themselves in the street (conversations that were sometimes really funny too because they were random) instead of all these useless and long lines we get in Skyrim. Walking down the street in Whiterun for the first time was really great, but after a few times it really becomes a pain.

The NPC conversations is one of the few things that Skyrim didn't improve from Oblivion, in my view. All the taverns, for example, are really boring too, becauseof "dead" or weird NPC's. In my Oblivion mod I created taverns that were far more lively and exciting than this. In Skyrim we only have a bunch of weird-looking characters staring into eternal space saying nothing and when you come close to them they start repeating themselves. All bartenders start saying "Yes? Yes? Yes? Yes?" over and over again if you stand close to them.

Hope they fix this, because otherwise a mod that does it will be highest on my download list.

"Skyrim doesn't contain entire universe. Immersion broken. Day one pirate."

100% agreed. They did this better in Oblivion.

If you actually read my post properly, you would understand that I wasn't saying that. I specifically said the problem wasn't with the amount of voice acting, but with the dispersal. If you're just here to be an ignorant, smug bastard then please leave this place sir.

After the guy said that I didn't get to the cloud district often WHEN I'M THE [censored] THANE!!!! I went wolf and ripped his throat out. I also killed the Talos priest because I was so sick of his ranting. I also HATE Braith."I'm not scared of you " I would kill her if i could.

So hearing about Mudcraps all day long was much better?

Read the OP, then comment. Some of your replies defending Bethesda are completely illogical...

There's a mod for this. It's awesome. You can either get rid of it or make it so you have to practically bump into the people for them to talk.

Do you have any link, good sir?
But the bumping in makes me wonder why they start talking to you as they approach you and you're not even looking at them.

I remember at the start of the MQ, when Irileth is rallying some troops in town... I try to listen to what she has to say, but no, Bethesda doesn't allow that. Irileth keeps getting drowned out by the sound of Arnie guards and kids feeling the need to talk to me when I'm clearly trying to ignore them and am not even facing them.

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=746 ← Click the smiley face.