This is something I absolutely don't want, I'm disheartened enough at its inclusion in Fallout 4 but that's a matter for a separate board. The problem with having a voiced protagonist in an Elder Scrolls game is much more complex, as you have a maximum of 20 sets of dialog to record as opposed to just two sets for male and female.

Even were we to have one set of dialog for all male and female humans and one for all male and female elves, we still need individual sets for each male and female beast race. You're talking about a minimum of 12 sets of thousands upon thousands of lines of dialog for protagonists. That's a lot of money, time and disc space, it also almost certainly comes at some sort of expense to NPC dialog quantity, quality and variety.

Let me clarify here, you may be able to use the same voice actor(s) for many races but that still requires individual sets of dialog to be recorded and included in the game as the voices are different, whether voiced by the same person or not. That is unless Bethesds CUTS PLAYABLE RACES FROM VANILLA. Which, depressingly, doesn't seem like an impossibility.

Am I just blind to other potential ways they can do this? It seems like Bethesda will almost have go back to a silent protagonist for the next Elder Scrolls. That brings me great comfort, but also deeply worries me as the only real ways they can include voiced protagonist involve making the game almost unrecognizable in some regards. And if enough praise is heaped upon the "cinematic dialog" of Fallout 4 by the legions of wannabe movie critics currently reviewing games, I can see Bethesda bending to them.

We have a thread on this topic already: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1521118-voiced-protagonists-and-lore-characters-yes-or-no/

That's a poll and general discussion. This is a more specific thread and question.