I Think Todd mentioned that the robot can say 1000 diffirent names, is there a list of these names? Will there be a notice when naming the character, if the name is "supported"?

The list hasn't be released yet. If they'll even release it, that is. I also doubt you'll get an in-game notice as well.

(I wouldn't worry too much about it. Codsworth is probably the only NPC that says your name. But hey, no one knows for sure.)

no further info on this front, nor do I think we really get any until PC guys pry through the code once the games out, it′s just a little wink wink detail.

With mods you'll probably be able to add more names. So everybody will be covered in the end.

lol maybe they'll have name microtransactions or something.

Please, no micro transactions. If I've already paid for the game I don't want to be nickel and dimed to death just to get the full experience that ought to be included by default.

Yeah... because mods can synchronize Codsworth with the same voice...? How should mods do it well?

Because you are forced to buy names said by Codsworth? YOu can't have the full experience just because Codsworth don't know your name?

my guess Google top 500 names for males and top 500 names for females From a English/European origin and you will have a close list to what they might support in game.

Haha, well now I'd rather have this modded in. Everytime someone says your name or refers to you... It should just make you listen to this one, in it's entirety.

What he meant most likely, is that if something so small and trivial as making a few names voiced is sold, they should have just added it in the first place. Lately, the world has gone DLC nuts, with some developers blatently cutting their game to pieces and charging you full 40-60 bucks for the cut up game, only to sell the rest at insane prices.

1980's Sitcom Radio mod

I wouldn't focus on this too much.

Todd Howard has a track record for dishonesty and exaggerating features. Oblivion was presented as having fully radiant AI, in Skyrim he told us you could sink Riverwood's economy by killing off the mill workers while again highly exaggerating dragon AI to make it sound like they all randomly roamed around the map (which of course they don't, they circle mountaintops).

When I heard the name feature, my personal response wasn't "awesome!!" No, my response was "why...?" I cannot fathom a project lead determining that wasting resources on such a feature for one singular character is worth the time and effort. Like even if you get it to work and it's neat, this means you have to pay the voice actor quite a bit, and that you've get a sound studio dedicated to recording the same lines over and over and over and over and over with the name being the only variable. Not to mention that sound files eat a decent sum of space, so again dedicating that much space to saying 1000 different names just seems like a really strange decision to me.

So yeah, given his track record and given how strange the decision to include such a feature is...? Don't hold your breath on it. Not saying it's a "definitely won't happen," but I do find it a bit strange and won't be surprised if it ends up becoming "oh we decided to cut that for reasons X, Y and Z."

I bet someone will pry through the dialogue code and publish his/her findings online.

Accompanied by an assortment popup meme pictures:

"Yo dawg, we heard that you like us knowing your name. So here's a song about knowing your name."

"I don't allways know your name, but when I know your name... I sing about knowing your name."

I'm pretty sure he said that they are still recording lines. If that's the case, they could just be the 1000 names which will end up being "it was during the last few months of our development time and we thought we would do more QA as it was more important", yet it will still be buggy.

lol. Holographic memes from the pipboy. I love this idea!

I'm not gonna say it's the right or wrong decision to include it, but it's hard to put a "immersion" factor... on various details...

Kinda like, sure we prefer even higher defintion graphics, but if dead bodies sink into the ground or float above it and it's all very subjective to what people notice most or puts most weight on.

I hope it'll pay off, since it's there, but I don't really know.

PS: Well, there is atleast a chance, that the americanized version of my name could make it.

1092poundwobble?

Nah, you just record each name once, then overdub it into the dialogue lines as needed. Easy peasy.

This, and it's the case with other stuff as well IMO: voiced protagonists, the vault game for ipads or whatever, even the pip-boy for smartphones. It's always money, development time etc that isn't spent to improve the game.

About the voiced protagonists, it might be ok the first time, but I don't doubt it'll be a nuisance when replaying the game. Actually, after all those years, I'm still on the fence with all the voice acting : it's rarely great (Dark Souls games have great voice acting, Skyrim has not IMO), it makes mods stand out, and in any case it's at the cost of more/deeper dialogue.

Sued for slander... Not THAT fat...

See, the problem here is that any feature someone doesn't like can be called a "waste of resources", and it's impossible to quantify the effort they spend on something. I doubt that recording 1000 different names with one voice actor is nearly as huge a drain on resources as you're making it out to be. We won't be able to blame the game's weaknesses on Codsworth knowing our name.

As for Todd Howard's "lies", we've already seen Codsworth call Howard by name, and use generic dialog for a character named "Phil Spencer". Riverwood's economy is probably in the same boat as Oblivion's initial radiant AI; they reined it in because it could probably have gone out of control. They openly talked about how wild radiant AI was in development for Oblivion; I'd imagine a "Radiant" economy would have been way too easy to break by accident, especially with players' habits of offloading scores of enchanted iron daggers to the same merchants. Codsworth knowing our name doesn't really have any gameplay ramifications that could end up screwing the balance.

I googled "top 500 names in America" and got this site and list. It should give you an idea of whether or not your name might be one of the names in the game.

http://nameberry.com/popular_names/US

It's not that it's not welcome, it's merely that you logically try to prioritize things based on the impact they have. The issue with this one is that they can't please everyone. My name for example isn't exactly common, nor will this effect ANY fans in Europe, Asia, South America....it's just a decent-sized effort for a rather humble effect. We're talking one NPC spouting dialog lines that only some people will be able to appreciate thoroughly.

Then you risk the result being that the name feels awkwardly out of place. For example in Skyrim I quickly noticed the Whiterun blacksmith says the name "Eurlond Grey-Mane" out of synch with the rest of her sentences. It comes across as comically awkward and has been the butt of many comedy show jokes, so the last thing they want is for a sincere immersion effort to become "It's so good to see you Master STEWART" where Stewart sounds so awkwardly out of place and so obviously dubbed in.