When I read the "dragon shout" part of the mag, something came to my mind... Will the player have a voice this time or will the shout be just our imagination? What do you think?

It's possible. A voice can be chosen depending on what race you choose in the beginning... which would also affect how this dragon shout sounds?

While I'm usually all for new ideas, I would not like this and I hope that Beth keep their current trend of letting us play the "Silent Hero(ine)".

I never thought of it like that. You get the shout from defeating and taking the soul of a dragon, right? I just assumed it would be like some sort of possessed roar.

Nothing in the GI article about PC voice. The Dragon shout could just be a dialogue option or a spell. Or a special sound for each race.

The player has always had a voice, although they don't say much. (*grunt* "oomph" "gaaaaawwwwghblgabll")

My assumption is that the Thu'um shouts will just be some cool nondescript magickal echoey wind tone thing. I do hope that the dragons have some really menacing voice though, like the Disciples in Heretic.

Don't think so. There'll be the usual 'ouch!' sounds I'm sure, and the dragon shout probably wouldn't sound 'human'.

I don't think we'll get full combat taunts though, and especially not voiced dialogue.

I hope you are right :nod:

I wish dragons sound like Sovereign from Mass Effect :bowdown: (still has the best dialogue I've seen in a videogame so far :sweat:)

As for the topic, I wouldn't mind some small lines for when walking around but on the other hand they could harm RPing, for example if you're an evil assassin and are walking around your character wouldn't say something like "By the Nine!" as it wouldn't fit. So I don't think this should be used ingame.

We dont even know what the dragon shout sounds like, so I think it's a little too early to jump to conclusions.

Think of it, recording 20 lines for each race (10 races x 20 shouts) for the Dragon Shouts is easy. And if done good, it won't break immersion and leave you wanting the PC to have voices in every dialogue. Now recording more than 5000 for each race would be really hard, plus it would break immersion because it's cool to imagine how your character would sound like, because you can be whoever you want and feel like you are this person. It's not like Shepard on ME where he has this pre-set personality in dialogue.

Simple answer: There won't be player voice for dialogues.

Mass Effect and similar games prove fully voiced PC works just fine without killing character customization. I'm all for it. I don't care about imagining my characters voice in my head, especially when most of the dialogue on the players part is little more than "I agree" and "Continue". Plus like Alexandur said, PC has already had a voice. But wait, my character wouldn't grunt like that... :shrug:

I just thought it would sound like a dragon roar, followed by the fancy spell effect. :shrug:

GI article mentions some words like "Fus", "Ro" and "Dah" as powerful words...


So you think the player will have a voice for dragon shouts?

I agree and hope you are right! I want my characters voice to come from my imagination.

I seriously doubt you'll hear your own character's voice.

Sounds kind of like the decapitation scenes in Highlander. :whistling:

Player voice has been done well in the past, but TES allows non-human races ~that triples the PC's voice assets (and then some; adding racial awareness to the responders). I doubt we'll see it in Skyrim.

**Also, many RPG players don't need it (and some don't even need voiced NPCs :shrug:)

I'm confused as to how being able to talk breaks immersion, or in your day to day life do you sign, rather than speak?


Characters past Elder Scrolls games didn't exactly have varied response options. It's not like adding voice could limit the choices any more.

I'm all for voiced dialogue so long as the actor can actually perform their lines properly and if we get to adjust the pitch to a degree. Though I'm against it if we end up with VAs that are as flat and dead and Shepard's voice actor from Mass Effect 2, I genuinely want to rip off my ears and throw them into a volcano every time the conversation wheel appears.

I'm happy enough to stick with the silent protagonist with a few battle cries, though I'd like to have some degree of influence over what they sound like.

As for dragonspeak, I'd rather the words be spoken with an inhuman and draconic voice simply because it would add more power to the words if they seemed to be coming from a great dragon itself.

I don't think it's gonna be full PC voice, but it could be a shout, even in the previous games you still had battle cries coming from your character.

Think of a friend or relative's voice... In RPG's you can think of your character's voice, and it is exactly as you wish it to be ~Unless it sounds like one of the guards, or the annoying fan. :laugh:
No voice means two things. First, it means that the player can imagine whatever voice they wish, and second , it means that the developers can re-write the PC's dialog at will, to fit a need, and not be restricted to what was recorded.

*Its also the case that many players read to the end a lot faster than a speaker takes to voice the dialog; and would prefer just to skip to the next block of text, than wait for the NPC to catch up.

The game Arx Fatalis did a great job with their voiced PC; but the PC was a Caucasian male (only) and had a choice of just three faces ~and only one voice.

I hope not, it would ruin immersion for me. :shakehead:

If we get a dragon shout, I want it to sound like a dragon (ROOOAAAAR) and not like some dude at a microphone.

Player VO- do not want.

I have the (horrible?) feeling that the PC is going to be forced to play as a male nord, with any possible aesthetic customization limited by that, which on the other hand would make voicing him a lot easier...
I'd rather be wrong, and I haven't really looked too hard at what media has been released about the game so far. Can anybody please prove me I'm wrong? Of course I'm wrong, what was I thinking... ah yes, now I remember...