I just thought of something while beginning a new playthrough in Oblivion. Although this idea won't happen for Skyrim, it would be cool as (censored). What if Skyrim would have a name generator in character creation. Imagine a long list of generated names for a specific race, similar to http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=913

And not only generated a name for your specified race, but NPCs would call you by this name, as well as Dovahkiin.

A reason why I think this could work is because in OB, right before you fight the grand champion in the arena, you choose a nickname to be called during the fight. And I believe it could work the same way in Skyrim. But again, I doubt they'll do it for the game. Would be cool though, agree?

Edit: Would not work for custom name.

If they had nick-names, maybe. I want my character to be named whatever I want, not what the list says I can name him. And also, I'd want there to be a "none" option in it. Not everyone has a nick-name.

Being able to choose a name, and then having NPCs able to address you directly, is pretty nifty. However I'd rather lose this niftiness and simply have fully customizable names.

And how much time would this mean for voice actors, recording how many names? Yeah, don't see that one happening.

Haha. I knew someone would bring this up. Simply prerecord each name and edit it in the dialogue for the NPCs might not sound too too great but they'll still say the name and say what they have to say.

I think it could work if you had maybe 5 names per race/gender, so a total of 100 names. Wouldn't be too much work I guess. But still, if there are going to be 40+ voice actors, that's a fair amount of additional dialog files to fit on a single xbox disc.

You should look up the game Facade, and you'll hear how horrible it sounds when you just cut in random names...

A random lore friendly name generator would be nice, both for the player and random NPCs, but I doubt they'll call you by name. There would be simply too much variations, especially if you include family names.

How about forget recording voices for the names, but just the name generator itself, completely optional, for people who have a difficult time naming their characters or want something faithful to the lore of their specific race? They have that on the internet I guess, but why not just stick it in the game?

Lore friendly name generator would be great. Whenever I play as something outside of my usual races I tend to have a bit of trouble as to what would sound right.

This is what I thought this thread was about from the title, I think this would be a brilliant addition, given that we already have a random face generator.

None
Bypass it by using Dwemer robot with voice sounding oddly like an original Cylon Warrior, or the old GORF arcade game

Aso to a name generator? No way! I like my names:

Kaji, cuz....he's a cat
Test, cuz this is my test character and is disposable
Numba1son, cuz...he's the first
Numba2son, cuz, well, Numb a1son died
Numba3son....well....you get the idea

They could make a deal with Microsoft and have MS Sam do the voice acting.

If they build the text to speech engine directly into the game engine (as apposed to just recording the voice acting from the computer), you could even have the custom names voice acted!

We can take this even farther maybe in a generation. We have programs now where we can have it pronounce a name you make yourself and use a voice modulator to sound like the voice actor so that it fits. The technology could be cheap and more refined in the next 5+ years, enough to put it in games and have them say your name in the actors voice without having the actor read the names.

I was just thinking about the same thing. It'd be interesting to see it reach the point that VAs aren't even needed anymore. You just type out the dialogue, then set the modulation for the voice and poof, you've got a fully voiced game.

It would be very limiting having to select from a list of names, and if it wouldn't even sound great and would involve doing more work, why do it anyways?

I like the fact that NPC's don't address you by your name, and I think BGS is good at making it not as obvious.

Yeah, haha... how is anyone going to pre-record in-game generated names?

Like the titles in the Fable games? You could choose to buy a title from a list of them from the town crier, and then NPCs would call you that name.
I loved this in Fable 2, since Gunslinger was one the titles, and I was role playing a gunslinger from the Dark tower series.

You know how sketchy that would sound. Its like that computer voice you got on your answering machine, then they say your recorded name
They'd have to re-record each line of dialogue (alot) where they say your name so it didn't sound weird, out of tone, etc.

I'd rather just be called Dovahkiin, too much of a hassle otherwise for a feature that'd wouldn't matter too much in the end.

You underestimate the power of "File size limitations of a DVD". Its truly a force to be reckoned with.

There simply isn't enough disc space for specific names, and people calling you them. That requires a lot of extra dialogue, which means more gigabytes of space on the disc. Not going to happen.
Not really a feature I'd want anyway, tbh.

Which is really while vocal programs to say the name plus a voice modulator to make it sound like like the actor (or be it's own standalone actor like said above) is the only real choice that can be used to reach this effect.

Sounds like a good idea.
And the nick-name thing is reminiscent of Fable.

It would be nice if NPC's called the PC different names depending on fame, quests, factions, etc.

You could start out like it was in Oblivion, "Hey there [insert race]"
Joining a guild, other members of the guild call you by your title, "Hey there [faction rank]"

Oblivion also had some dialog that referred to the PC, "I know you, you're the hero of Kvatch."

For now, give us a lore based name generator with 20 or so names per race/gender (They said they already have a name generator, so it could be adapted) and keep the voice files out of the picture, then once voice modulation get's more refined (Like "Face Off" good in a smaller package), then put that in games. Someday we will just need VAs to do 10 or so specific lines in specific ways and do the rest from there. Hell, I can already sound like Skeletor through Skype using free programs.

I dont know, Keith is a pretty solid name for any race