Todd Howard in a keynote video for Skyrim mentioned what the overarching technological themes were for the games seen here @ 8:47 through 9:57

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7awkYKbKHik&feature=player_detailpage#t=527s

As a summary

Arena- Make Tamriel

Daggerfall- Focus on the player

Morrowind- Locations, handplaced items, making the locations real

Oblivion- People, AI, and making the people seem real

Skyrim- Linking the player to locations and NPCs

My question is. What is the next step? Beyond obviously improving the systems in place to make them both fun and realistic, how will BGS expand the world interface?

I think that the next step involves linking the NPCs and Locations to Tamriel. In Skyrim they were linked to the player and the world seemed to halt if not for the fortune of the player coming to aid them. In TES VI the next logical step is to make the locations and people right for the location they live in.

Clothing reflective of climate

Items in markets related to materials supplied- ie Markarth = Silver weapons

World locations make sense- ie Who cuts down the trees in Riverwood?

Trade ports sell foreign items

Bandits wear the items in loot

Merchants hire nightguards

Water doesnt flow from nothing (Whiterun)

...

what are other things that could be the next step? What are other ways the locations and NPCs could be tied to Tamriel? Do you think that Todd accurately portrayed the V TES games?

Thanks for the link, I'm going to have to listen to the whole thing.

As for your specific question, I feel like Todd may have been referring to Radiant Story, and how you only experience certain "encounters" or have access to certain quests depending on your level or certain tasks/actions you've already performed. Skyrim didn't always do a great job with making the player feel like their character was a part of the world, and that the world responded to their actions, so I think Todd is exaggerating Skyrim's success on that part (or maybe he is just describing what they tried to do, or what they wanted to do).

I like your suggestion about situating the province you experience in the game into the wider fictional setting. That would certainly be a good feature.

As for my own speculation, I think that there'll be more emphasis on interaction with NPCs. I recall an interview before Skyrim's release---sorry, I don't have a link, and I don't remember exactly where it is---where Todd said that he feels like what game developers are really good at is creating believable and immersive environments, but they haven't been as successful with creating compelling characters. I don't play enough games to know if this is true, but I think it's true of TES; and if Todd still thinks that that's the case, then I suspect we'll see more emphasis on NPCs. So a wider variety of behaviours, more adaptive AI, better animation, a greater variety of roles for NPCs to play, and so on.

Linking the LORE to the NPC/Player. Making it feel so much more real. If villagers fear troll attacks, I want them to act like it. Not like glorified quest boards.

Ie "story telling" which is practically Bethesda's final frontier. We'll see if the Witcher 3 kicks their ass in this department again (probably will). Though we have yet to see if its open world will be as good as Bethesda's. That is the biggest thing they need to work on, it's so critical to do before moving on to anything else. And it isn't something that can really be done from a technical stand point. Well sorta kinda, but not really.

Edit

Games have created compelling characters. A lot of them. The most recent that comes to mind is Clementine and Lee from The Walking Dead.

I definitely think it'll be better/improved NPC interaction. A lot of games have improved in this department (BioWare writes some pretty great characters, and depending how you interact with them, they develop very differently over the course of the story), so I personally think it's only logical for Bethesda to go in that direction. They're *ace* at creating worlds for characters to run around in, and they had a good idea for certain NPCs in Skyrim, but it can definitely be improved, I think.

Also, perhaps a better character creation system? I'm not asking for Saint's Row 3-level of customization, but it's hard to work with the presets sometimes, short of sculpting my own face and putting it in the game myself. But I'm nitpicking at this point :b

I think the Creation Engine provided a good foundation even for future projects. The next gen consoles will have many things in common with PC, so evolving the current technology probably makes more sense, from a business point of view, that throwing away everything and starting anew. Skyrim on PC with all the HD textures and custom shaders, looks really impressive.

We're also entering the 'uncanny valley' as far as real-time computer graphics are concerned. When a artificially generated picture become a 'good enough' approximation of reality our brain will be more focused on the differences and errors than on the good side, with a detrimental effect on the overall experience. This also means that focusing on details will bring gradually diminishing returns and a lot of resources wasted.

I'd rather see Bethesda leaving the graphic engine as it is and concentrate on increasing the interaction with the world. The game could use much better AI routines. I don't want to witness anymore the NPCs with arrows sticking out of their back resuming their daily routines just because they couldn't detect the PC for a few seconds. I want to see busy cities and towns. I don't care if there are one hundred characters around named 'Farmer' or 'Merchant' but I'd like to see these NPCs actually behaving like credible farmers and merchants (and this includes running for cover when a dragon attacks!!!)

Story telling? I constantly hear of the Witcher series but I havent played it. Are you meaning like how the Skall told the story of Miraak in the DB trailer, but not in the game? That would certainly be amazing. Or perhaps you mean to say that they need to enhance the existing journals and notes found in caves and ruins?

As for games with compelling characters, Bioshock Infinite's Elizabeth is the most useful and compelling NPC since Clementine. Unfortunately both of these successful NPCs play the role of eager innocent -> turned innocence lost -> turned transcendence. Typically player characters or entire worlds have this role. (Think Zelda Ocarina of Time where both examples are true)

Looks like some folks commenting on that page feel Skyrim missed the mark also in making an RPG experience.