I have been wanting to post this for some time now but finally got myself to it. So first some background story. Bethesda is responsible for some of the best games that I have ever played and I have played quite a few, the games I am mainly going to talk about are Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout 3. Three of my favourite games that I have completed every assignment and mission in so I would place myself above your average casual Elder Scrolls player. But I have found one problem, one huge problem that I can never get out of my mind that have haunted me through particularly these three games.

That problem is my failure to connect to any of the characters in the game, both minor and mayor characters. So I will now break this down for you with a couple of examples. Some minor spoilers here but nothing too serious, still you might want to rethink your continued reading if you haven't completed the games.

What first got me thinking in this path was Fallout 3. Fallout 3 starts you off as you know in Vault 101, the story eventually leads up to a grand escape from the vault with your childhood friend Amata Almodovar. My first thought was "This could lead up to an amazing love interest as a side-story". So when was going to return to the Vault I was thinking "I will probably get Amata out of there now and she could move in with me!" happy thoughts! Oh were I in for a disappointment. She just stays of reasons I have forgotten now, although I have heard that you can see her wander around and even get killed by Deathclaws... then there is your father that could have been made so much better and emotional, and the only one I connect to is Fawkes and Sarah Lyons.

Then we have Skyrim, I was so excited for that release and I know that I wasn't alone, and I wasn't disappointed, it was everything we could dream about and more! And you could have a partner! I could get myself a wife! Finally Bethesda seemed to add more emotions into the game... yeah... you all know where I am going. That is by far the most depressing excuse for a marriage I have ever seen. She stays home, mostly sitting on a chair everyday... and she sells me stuff... put a vendor in my house and it would be exactly the same. At least in Fable you get to kiss your wife and have a good time, here you can buy supper from her at best. The only one I bond with in Skyrim on an emotional and caring basis is Lydia and she barely talks to me, but at least she seem to care about my safety.

And don't get me started with Oblivion that doesn't have a single character I care about, if they die I will shrug my shoulders and move on. And this is a bitter sence to me how loves when my whole emotional spectrum flares when I play games. So many events in other games have had me almost crying and three of my favourite games can't manage to make me feel anything. Sure I feel awe for the landscape, fear for the creatures and accomplishment for my deeds, but I am strictly talking about the characters.

Take Mass Effect for example which genrewise is comperable. There you really bond with your crewmembers and you get to know them on personal basis. Take other characterdriven games, GTA, Masterchief/Cortana, Gears of War Dominic/Marcus, Final Fantasy. The list can go on forever.

Now I want your input! Maybe you know something that I don't on the subject, maybe you agree or disagree, but I sure want your take on this matter. Do you want Bethesda to keep this in mind in the future or are you content with how it is now?

Each person will feel differently about games and the characters.

For me Fallout 3 I found I liked most of the characters and each had their own personality. Not talking about the generic NPC's. I really loved the roll Liam played as the father and the impact it had.

Skyrim for the most part was quite weak since characters did not really have any personality and lacked a lot of emotions. The towns and taverns and such for the most part felt empty and lifeless. And don't get me started on the same dialogs over and over again. Oblivion had some of it but they also had a lot more of gossip chit chat felt more natural.

Oblivion the faces looked kind of like cabbage patch kids but the faces did have character and quite often showed quite a bit of emotions. The towns felt more like towns and felt more alive.

In regards to Mass Effect I only played the first 2 without any dlc's. First playthrough is quite good but I did not like having a voice for your main character and I never really got attached to the crew except for Joker. For the most part that part of the game become a touchy feely type game which I do not like. Joker's part at least made me laugh.

It is easier for Mass Effect to go more into characters since the whole game is scripted with very little open world choices. Bethesda's games you do not even have to do the main quest so there are a lot more characters. Mass Effect really only has the crew and a few npc's at key locations.

I have found that reliance on spoken dialog has reduced the emotional involvement. In Morrowind and earlier games, an extensive story could be written up and applied to any character. With the advent of Oblivion and later games, including Fallout 3, the dialog is spoken. One would think this would make for a more emotional experience, but it does not. Reason, humans communicate with mostly non verbal cues, and no animated face will ever convey this, LA Noire showed this. Facial cues were part and parcel of that game, and it it was still wooden and an involving.

When we read, we do not need or expect the body language and cues, so we do not rely on those. So, we get more emotion out of the text. It does not work to just read the text in the game (especially as I keep cutting off the NPC to get to the next line, so even less of an involvement).

So, we need better facial animations, or we need to go back to Text based interactions exclusively, and leave the spoken dialog to generic utterances, filler and greetings/taunts.

Daggerfall and Morrowind had far more "lively" cultures, but most of the characters were still kind of weak at best. At least the text dialog allowed you to add your own emotional overtones, whereas the voiced dialog in the later games gave you voices without much emotion, if any.