Sounds like a weird title thread, what is this doing in a Fallout forum, am I right? Well, let me delve into the details of why I am finding the voice protagonist from Fallout 4 more and more unforgivable. And the solutions we can implement in the next Fallout game.

I mention Sackboy because I think he's a highly successful avatar. The reason why I say this is because he's one of Playstations many mascots. And the reason this is significant is because Sackboy is a silent protagonist. He is the ultimate expression tool for why Silent Protagonist exist and why they should stick around. And why they are so successful in the first place.

Sackboy is a customizable creation. You could claim that he needs to talk all you like, but the reason why people like Little Big Planet and like Sackboy so much is Sackboy can take on many shapes, many forms, and be completely unique to the individual who has designed him. Sackboy is the ultimate expression of Player Expression. Sackboy doesn't need a voice, doesn't need a backstory, to be successful because the Player makes him successful.

They dress him or her up, however, they like. What he wears, what he or she does, is an expression of the player itself. And the personality is reflected in the design of the character.

And this is why Fallout 4 is an Insuccessful Avatar. Because unlike Sackboy, the F4 Avatar is in no way shaping the character to the Player's Expression. It is Shaping the Character's Expression through the Player.

At the end of the day, Your F4 Avatar is no different from My F4. They will always be John or Jane Doe who lost their son, who was a lawyer or a soldier. Sure you can add whatever flavor of text in between the lines as you like. In the end of the day our Avatars is nowhere near as unique. As let's say Sackboy.

Now I know what some of you are going to claim. Sackboy and Fallout 4 cannot be compared because they are completely different games. Though I have always disagreed with that notion because I always feel like Ideas can be compared Across All Genres. Ideas Are Not Stuck to One Specific Genre.

The reason why I am making this comparison is because of the reason why I fell in love Bethseda titles and why I liked Western RPGs so much compared to JRPGs. Because for a long time, Western RPGs, followed along the paths of DnD or other tabletop games. Western RPGs, gave a way for the Player to Express a Character. We were given Avatars that we could customize to whatever extent we wanted. They had blank stories and blank backgrounds. The ultimate blank slates, that allowed us to create whatever we wanted. Something I rarely find in JRPGs.

I play Western RPGs, for my own personal Fantasy Sackboy. See, why I mention Sackboy now?

My Wizard or Fighter or whatever I am to design in games like Fallout, Dragon Age Inquisition, The Elder Scrolls, are Realistic Versions of Sackboys. They are Blank Slate characters that I get to mold and design as I like to. Because that's why and how I got into Western RPGs. Because I enjoy personalizing and creating my own little Sackboys.

And I much would rather Western RPGs modernize this take of Virtual Sackboys, that I get to personalize and express my own Player pursuit to creation. If we are going to go the route of Voice Protagonist in Western RPGs. I'd like Bethseda to implement the tools of other games, that I have appreciated.

I mentioned this before, but-

Dragon Age Inquisition gives you two voices to choose from, but I'd like to take it a step further and point out Saints Row 4 which allows me to change the pitch and tone of the voices I choose from. Even Soul Calibur 5 has been doing this since their customization days.

If we're going to go towards the future of Voice Protagonist. I'd like the Voice to become Part of the Player's Creativity. And not the Narrative of the RPG. If that makes sense.

I'd like to see Voice Protagonist at least be part of the Sackboy instead of separate.

But, for my personal taste. I'd like to see people stick with Silent Protagonist. Because I feel a Voice Protagonist limits what we can do with dialogue'd options in these types of games.

So, there's my thoughts. Nothing new. Only kind of something that I been thinking about lately.

with all the voice acting in FO4, I could see them throwing a couple more in, but consider how much complaining went on at launch over file size of this game!

Sackboy! I loved those little dudes in LBP. I used to watch my boys build and explore that game. was quite cool! and they actually bonded over it helping each other out day after day!

wanna see my favorite sackboy? Meet Sam : http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3249375488/tt0862856?ref_=ttmd_md_pv#

I actually like the voiced protagonist idea but the one voice option for each gender meant I struggled to play as the male, as his voice was just too cheery for how I imagine any male character I create would sound.

What I would give to have an almost complete blank slate character like we got for NV, as the detailed backstory forced upon us even more then in Fallout 3 is the biggest spoil to my enjoyment of this game, although I do prefer that our potential protagonists are advlt rather then teenagers in this game.

Im sure I am not the first person to think that a Fallout game with the world building of Bethesda but the story & dialogue done by Obsidian would probably be as close to the perfect game I could ever own for my personal tastes.

I like to have voiced character, It always seemed weird to me that all npc can speak, and my character is dumb. Though I can dislike some certain voices. I think they just should make it optional, so people who dislike it can switch it off in settings. What I really want is to have more different answers. I don`t even care what option to choose if I get the same answer in any case. So frustrating when you have 4 very different options but in spite of your choice you get the same answer. Makes the whole dialog waste of time.

So I am never good at explaining this. I never understood this mindset. Like ever. You Do the Talking For Your Character.

In FNV in Fallout, it isn't that your character doesn't speak. You do the speaking for your character. Because the character is your own personalized avatar.

Often times dialogue in FNV went like this, and I don't remember direct quotes, but I am just using it as an example

Scientist character claims I am not smart enough to understand what he saying

Me the Player, "[censored] you I'll show you my Intelligence right now" and then I choose the Intelligence option in my dialogue.

I don't need a character to reflect the talking I already do. When I can so clearly in my head hear how my character would speak.

The problem isn't a voiced character, the problem is no matter what kind of character build you roll they all sound like concerned generic male #467. They really needed a couple more options for each gender, including crazy old man.

I concur. Which was what my solution suggested.

To be honest the Woman Voice Actor is a lot better than the male one though.

I don't have any issues with either of the voice actors, apart from one moment with the male protagonist when McCready is your companion and he asks if you're impressed with him. The full-on affirmative answer from the male actor includes this weirdly effusive chuckle before he confirms he's impressed that pulls me out every time.

Otherwise, voiced or not, more dialogue options and more variety in their impact is all I care about on this. My two cents.

Nora has well spoken dialog and terrible sounding drug screams, nate soumds like they asked the ups guy to record lines. "F@@@ing kill!" best sound file ever.


I liked the option in saints row to pic from multiple voices. There was way more dialog in that game so it's clearly possible.

All people play in different ways. I never really talk for my character. I can say my line in a nice voice, or in angry voice, but no difference in the end. I get the same answer from npc. So why bother with talking myself , even in my head ? They are not going to evaluate my acting skills With voiced character it`s like watching a film when you choose an event and then watching it. I understand that some people don`t like it. So I think they should be able to switch it off. But I don`t understand why everybody should do it the same way.

Yes, me too.

I like having the voiced protagonist, but I think that having a few voice options would be nice. This could be done relatively easily with some kind of voice modulator. Personally though, I'll take a single voiced protagonist (in this case a pair of voiced protagonists) over a non-voiced protagonist any day though. I feel like it adds a lot to the game and it helps me to feel more of an attachment to the character. In FO3 and NV you never really see your character. I play in first person, so the only time I ever dude was when I intentionally zoomed out. With the voiced protagonist my character is more than just sentences in a list. It's a character that I can see and hear speaking.

What a very long way to say you want more voice options/customization.

Actually a lot of people missed the point. I am highly against voice protagonist and stated the reasons why. Using a very successful and famous silent protagonist. But then said if we are to continue voice protagonist I want more options.

Voiced protagonist not only limits the role-playing but also is an example of wasted resources. I'd pick more land, NPCs, and quests over voicing any day of the week.

My sentiments exactly. It's like people missed the reason why I played games like Western RPGs .

I really hope the next elder scrolls game has a silent protagonist. That would be terrible, imagine you could only be imperial, Breton or redguard and they all had the same voice.

Voiced is a great step forward in my opinion.

I expect TESVI is already going to be voiced (and is probably already recording).

I think this ship has sailed.

Why? There are reasons you don't give some video game characters voices take Link as an example. If you don't know why to take Link as an example here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4SLjLen7-c.

Why just Link? Well in Hyrule Warriors all the characters had voices besides link.

If it has, then I'll be waving good-bye from the shore.

If the next ES game has a voiced protagonist, I won't be playing it. Far too restrictive and imagination killing for me; my character is mine, they should have the voice I want. Playing as a predetermined character is fine for games where the whole point is to play as that character, like Mass Effect. You are playing EABioware's Shepard, with minor additions of your concept of the character. While I was interested in Shepard's story, she was always Shepard, never "my" character. The same thing, for me, applies to FO4. The SS isn't really my character. I don't really care that much about what happens. I'm not invested in the character, and I think, in my case, a large part of that is due to the voice and the set up of the story. I don't feel that much urgency to find my son, or who killed my spouse. Its more like a heavy duty/weight/responsibility; this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I haven't played in a month and a half. I'm having more fun with my silent characters running around in ESO.

I love voiced protagonist, but Bethesda should have enough money to have at least 2 protagonist voice actors per gender. For the next game, I wouldn't mind if they have 2-3 voiced protagonist, so that each character you make sound different.

I can't go back to playing Skyrim due to the lack of voice.

My sentiments exactly.

Edit-

I mean that's the reason why I compared My RPG Avatar with Sackboy. They are virtually the same concepts about taking something that is inherently yours and making ti yours. And I explained the reason why I have played Western RPGs in the past. Because I want the ability to have my very own Realistic Sackboy.

I recognise that change is difficult.

Fallout 4 has been hugely successful with a voiced protagonist.

I'm sure TES VI will be.

It will be a shame if some long standing players will be lost, but there it is.

I really don't see why or how having a voiced protagonist changes the role playing experience. I get it to some small extent in that you're locked into that voice, but it doesn't bother me in even the least bit. I'm glad I'm not that particular.

I think a lot of people attribute the mediocre dialog in the game to the voiced protagonist when in reality it's just due to mediocre writing. FO3 and NV could have had a voiced protagonist without changing a single bit of the written dialog.

I don't see how this prevents my character from being unique from yours. FO4 has FAR more character customization than any previous Fallout game. Yes, we're locked into a single voice for each gender, but so what? This makes character creation pointless? I am REALLY glad that I'm not this particular. I've seen tons of character builds in this game, and they all look pretty unique. If this ruins the game for you, then so be it. There are other games out there for you to enjoy. From what I've seen, the vast majority opinion is that it's an improvement, so I don't see it going anywhere. I certainly hope it doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't really bother me, but it'd be nice to see some kind of voice modulator though I suppose.

Not to highjack the thread, but I see people saying stuff like this fairly often without ever backing it up. The writing in FO4 is not mediocre in any way. What I see instead is a lot of us still approach art as modernists, thinking the point of the time we spend there is to uncover what the artists put there for us to find. But video games like FO4 are entirely postmodern in their presentation, and merely uncovering what the artists put there is in fact not the point -- the point is deciding for ourselves what we find and, most importantly, what it means.

Anyway, back on topic.

Voiced protagonists in Elder Scrolls games won't work without a huge range of variation across the races. The budgetary restrictions of that alone might be prohibitive, but I wouldn't make my mind up about it before trying. Love that series far too much to abandon it so quickly.

I don't need to provide examples. The point is pretty clear when the majority of the dialog has 4 options that all give me the same end result. It is absolutely mediocre because there are very few options or decisions integrated into it. The -presentation- is great. A great deal of the dialog choices in the game are 'yes, sarcastic yes, no (yes), and sarcastic no (yes).' It's a pretty rare occasion to open up alternative quest paths through dialog. This was fairly common in previous games. That is poor writing. In my opinion, Fallout 4 is undoubtedly the best Fallout game ever made, and it's one of the best games I've ever played. But the writing leaves a lot to be desired.

I don't really know what you're on about regarding modernism and post-modernism. My "approach" doesn't matter if there aren't even options to approach most dialog situations from different perspectives. Opinions vary, but the writing of the dialog in FO4 leaves very little room for alternate paths. The options just aren't there. In a role playing game, this equates to mediocre writing.