So a while ago in an interview Pete Hines said something along the lines of "we'll see about it" in an interview when questioned on whether Fallout 4 will have the option to turn a voiced protagonist off. I seriously doubt this feature will be present upon release, but it does give me a glimmer of hope that at some point after release this option will be patched in.

The voiced protagonist is my main gripe with this game, the only one I can't actually overlook. The voice itself I could perhaps live with (although from gameplay so far the protgaonist talks way too much, commenting on in-game items and such when not even in conversation) but what I really can't abide is the dialog wheel where we can't see the full dialog of what we're about to say when selecting an option. Ideally I would prefer Bethesda patch in the option to play with a traditional dialog system of theirs, you respond through text options (the full text, not contractions) and the protagonist remains silent the entire game, but I would accept a patch merely adding the full text of the dialog to the options in the wheel instead of the several word contractions.

Basically this is just a plea for information from Bethesda regarding short-term plans for the dialog system in the game. I definitely won't be picking this game up at launch if the dialog system remains as it is, and likely not for quite a few months after unless a patch is released allowing optional alternative dialog systems.

If I just know you have definitive plans to include dialog options like this at some point, I can order the game comfortably, until then I'm afraid I can't. The recent information given on playing on after the end gives me hope (since I was told here you would not reveal information on that before release) you might release infomation on things like this, since it's clearly a really important issue to a lot of your fans.

I think you will be waiting a long time, since I think this will stay in the game and likely be part of all Bethesda's games from now on. Most games now have voiced protagonists.

So they're going to record 13000 lines of dialog 20 times for the next Elder Scrolls, are they? They either do that or they cut the amount of playable races in vanilla and just have a male and female voice for all human races, with elf and beast races becoming unplayable in vanilla.

I'm sure that will go down well.

If it is a feature of all their games from now on, and is not accompanied by optional dialog systems, then they've lost at least one, long-term, fairly diehard fan of theirs. Most games having them is utterly irrelevant, I don't know why you would feel the need to even bring that up. There's a lot of things "most games" have, doesn't mean Bethesda needs to shoehorn them into its franchises.

Likely Bethesda got a lot of requests to add in voiced protagonist and most of the competition in the RPG are going with voiced protagonist for quite some time now. It is the future of gaming.

I was not for it at first but I think it might work well in Fallout 4 from what I have seen. As for TES I think it will work even better since they will need more voices. DA:I has a couple of voices for the races and I think it worked well in that game.

Voiced Protagonist won't be an issue, if you have the Time OP, look up Brian Delanny's interview with Mattyplays on Youtube. It's a very good interview, that is 2 hours long and just goes into depth about topics relevant to the voiced protagonist in Fallout 4, in addition to Delanny's past history with voicing characters. I was skeptical like you were because of past history with other studios making the switch (Cough Bioware, Cough) but after hearing that interview I have no concerns about Voiced Protagonist. Now the writing I'm still skeptical of because Emil is still head writer but that's more of a personal pet peeve of mine. Voiced Protagonist though shouldn't be an issue.

If listen to what I'm saying, they would need to record thousands of lines of dialog at least 20 times, unless they significantly cut the number of playable races in vanilla, even if using several actors. Do you have any idea how much disc space, time and money that takes up to record at an acceptable level? Are you aware of what that would do to NPC dialog in the game?

Voiced protagonists are not "the future of gaming". Every game does not need to feature a voiced protagonist and they do not fit certain games well at all. If you had read my comment fully though you would have seen I'm not completely opposed to having a voice in Fallout 4, but the dialog system NEEDS to be sorted. The contracted sentence options of the dialog wheel are an absolute no-no for me.

I need to know exactly what I'm about to say, that shouldn't be particualarly hard or even time consuming to patch in as an option in settings, it just requires going through all the dialog in the code and extending the text.

Are you aware you come across as incredibly patronizing when saying this? I have experienced voiced protagonists extensively in games, I know which I prefer and I know what I want in a Bethesda game. It IS an issue for me and many other fans, the quality of the voice actor or how nice and enthusiastic a person he is is utterly irrelvant.

You're also citing a biased source, this actor is never going to come out and say "Well hey, they made a terrible mistake hiring me, voiced protagonists svck in Bethesda games and I'd much have preferred they didn't pay me all that money and raise my profile significantly by including me in their game in such a prolific role". Not that it's relevant of course because my problem is not so much with HOW a voiced protagonist is implemented (as I've mentioned the wheel and contracted sentences) but more that it's been implemented at all.

Now, again, I can just about tolerate a voiced protagonit, but that dialog wheel NEEDS to be altered. I absolutely refuse to play the game until the full dialog is included in the text options.

It is what Bethesda wants to do and it is their game to develop. If you do not like it you do not have to buy it.

I have no issues with the dialog options maybe more in the story writing but I think the dialog will work out. I will see when the game is out.

You are free to voice your concerns and would like to see an option be added to a game. I have no issue if they make the dialog option to have more text. The more options usually the better it is but at some point they have to decide what is in and what is not.

Likely there are going to be things in Fallout 4 that I do not like or wished it was done in a different way but that is for every game I have played.

Fan Feedback is great but they can not do everything that every fan wants since all of us have different things we like and dislike. They do listen and if it fits into their vision of the game than it will likely be done if possible.

Reading over my post I did notice that it did sound a bit rude and I do apologize for that.

Honestly, it would make sense to have it at the very least be patched in later as an option for those who absolutely hate a voiced protag. Oh man I hope their patches have actual content like Skyrim's did, that was such a good idea on Bethesda's part.

So are you trying to have a discussion about this or just plead to the Bethesda developers for a feature? This is a forum after all, not a suggestion box.

Pale Pilgrim, my initial reaction to the voiced protagonist(s) was the same as yours. I did not care for the idea at first, but I am slowly warming to the idea in the hopes that Bethesda can do it in a better way. The male voice actor sounds good from what I've heard. While I'm not familiar with the female voice actor, everyone says she is good, too. And of course a lot of it hinges on the quality of the writing.

I agree that I hope that they don't go this route with the Elder Scrolls series.

Never understood the point of the argument voiced protagonists narrow personalities. Doesn't dialog narrow personalities? I mean I can have nothing voiced and only give you the options to be a dike or someones best friend and that would be what limits your character personality. The only thing dialog is going to do is give your character a vocal range. That's more a customization problem than an rp problem.

Well, as I've already said, I and many other are opposed to the implementation itself, not HOW it's implemented. The quality of the voice acting, the quality of the writing, the enthusiasm, personality and ability of the voice actors is all completely irrelevant to me. It's a feature I do not care for in games, especially games where you create your character and where choice is a huge component.

I do not want a voiced protagonist, I am not going to change my position on that. There is nothing that can "warm me" to that idea other than it being entirely optional alongside a traditional Bethesda dialog system. Well, that's not entirely true, I would be SLIGHTLY less opposed (but still staunchly opposed) to the voiced protagonist were the FULL dialog included in the options wheel as opposed to several word contractions as we've seen in all gameplay videos so far, as I've also already mentioned.

In the same way some people simply can't abide a game in first-person or multiplayer or any other game feature. Bethesda caters to both first and third-person gamers in their titles, I don't see how it's entirely unreasonable to merely request they cater to lovers and loathers of voiced protagonists upon attempting to implement such a thing in their games.

Now why certain people get so sensitive and defensive about a dislike of this particular feature, I'm not quite sure.

It does, so you DO understand then! Voiced protagonists narrow them considerably more. Text responses are a happy middle ground.

I'll second this post. I was skeptical at first, but from what I've heard so far I'd say it's wayyy better than Mass Effect, and I like Mass Effect (I've been playing Bethesda games since Morrowind was released, so voiced protags were a shock for me). I can't see this working with TES either. It would just be too much, and if they cut any of the races I would not buy that TES game.

It won't work for TES, and i think Fallout 4 is the right and only game for Bethesda to test it out. I don't mind the voiced PC at all, actually i prefer it, but i understand the skepticism. What i do like and respect is Bethesda choice and vision, they are doing this knowing full well it would piss off alot of people and yet they want to try it to improve their storytelling. Will it work? We don't know yet. What i will say is if its a deal breaker for you the best thing you can do is just avoid the game all together, voting with your wallet still works (in my opinion).

TES could be done with all races, beth would just need a minimum of 6 total main voice actors. 2 for human and elves 2 for khajit and 2 for argonian. Since the character comes from cyrodil in I believe ever single TES they would all have the same accent excluding the beast races who always talk different.

Now back on topic I'm someone fine with a voiced protagonist, but I do agree that we should be able to see what we're actually going to say. The more simplified the description the more likely I am to pick something that seemed like my character would say it only for it to be the complete opposite of what I thought it was. We'll see how well beth supposedly made their dialog system, but I'm guessing that this will be the true main problem with it and not the voice.

Good for you! I hope you stick to that position, though, I'm of completely the same mindset. If they do cut playable races from vanilla in order to shoehorn in voiced protagonists I will be done with Bethesda. And if NPC dialog instead pays the heavy price for having 20 sets of thousands of lines of protagonist dialog in it I also will be done with Bethesda.

My guess is that you are going to have to take a pass on this game if the voiced mc is that big of an issue for you. They may add full text when selecting a dialogue option but I highly doubt that they would put in an option to turn the voice off especially after all the work it took to write the scrips, record, and put it in the game.

The voiced protagonist is one of the major new features of the game. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Bethesda to patch in the possibility of turning it off. The whole dialogue system revolves around the protagonist being voiced.

Thanks. Yes, I keep hearing that, as well. Although I was shocked when they first announced it too, I realized that I didn't want to miss out on playing the game all together.

I'm afraid it would be a deal breaker for me too if TES goes voiced/dialogue wheel.

If they do that, fine, I will begrudgingly accept it and play the game. If they do it for Elder Scrolls, however, that's a very different story, as I've mentioned.

Normally, I would absolutely agree with you, however several days ago someone told me I was insane for desiring clarification from Bethesda regarding playing on after finishing the main quest, then we got that clarification. If enough people asked for clarification on the dialog system or at least plans to change that (as Pete Hines already SUGGESTED they were pondering) we could get information on that as well before release.

Can you actually imagine if in the next Elder Scrolls instead of starting in a prison with a blank slate as a voiceless hero we started with an established background, wife/child and voice? And if all NPCs were reduced to several words of dialog (or many were even silent) to accomodate for the 260000 lines of protagonist dialog for each and every gender/race?

Just no.

Did you come from Cyrodiil in Skyrim? I just remember them saying you were trying to cross the border, not necessarily into Skyrim, but I digress. That could work with the TES races but I would prefer to have elves sound different from humans, if each race didn't have their own voice. I hope it does tell us exactly what our character is about to say in F4.
This would break my heart because I love TES, but I definitely would not buy it if they cut any races. I already have a few misgivings about the prospect of the next TES game possibly taking place in Black Marsh, but that's a conversation for another forum.

OT: I really hope this feature is included so people who feel the way you do can enjoy Fallout 4.

I don't believe you came from Cyrodiil in any of the games, at least it was never specifically stated that you did. You may have started in Cyrodiil or your character may have at one point in time been in Cyrodiil but your past was always blank and for you to decide on for yourself.

It would crush me, Elder Scrolls is my favorite series and world of all time, it's the reason I even tried Fallout in the first place and fell in love with that world also. I'm still nowhere near as attached to the Fallout series as I am to the Elder Scrolls series, which is why I'm handling the voiced protagonist and detailed backstory so well (yes, this is me actually handling it well, hehe) and would actually be willing to try it if they just sort out the damn dialog wheel.

Thank you, I really do hope that too. At the very least, like you, I just hope it gives the option, or the option is patched in, for the full sentence you're about to speak to be displayed in the dialog wheel. Without this, I really won't buy the game, or even rent it. I'm going to be strong on this one, haha, but I'd really rather not have to be.

Yes you were crossing from cyrodil. What I'm implying is that you character would have spent enough time in cyrodil to pick up a bit of an accent. Would still be a very open background, but would give a reason for you being voiced the same. Even so beth seems to be going the direction of personality matched to voice so elves and humans already sound the same.

You always come from cyrodil, but that is all they specify. Doesn't imply anything but that you've been in cyrodil long enough to get arrested and spend some time in jail. Skyrim slightly broke this tradition by having you get arrested after crossing from cyrodil.

As for voicing in TES that would be of a bigger concern to me than fallout as there is more to screw up. Fallout is a more straight forward concept so a voice doesn't cause as much interference. A human is a human and all. TES with multiple races is a much more complex task when it come to voice acting, especially considering how diverse they make them out to be. I'd be more concerned with how they would do it there than here. The one thing I will make you aware of is that beth has shown that they are more than willing to move features from one game to the other, so depending on how the new dialogue system works and is received it may influence TES 6.

When I said came from, I really meant born and/or raised there. Sure you were in Cyrodiil immediately prior to the beginning of the game, but how you ended up there is absolutely up to you, and in a reality such as Mundus there are many, many possibilities as to how you spontaneously (or not) came to be in Cyrodiil before the game began.

Believe me, that thought has not left my mind since a voiced protagonist was revealed for Fallout 4. Critics will no doubt laud the voice, and many gamers will too, so Bethesda will no doubt feel pressured to implement it in the next Elder Scrolls.

Here is the reality though, that is 20 sets of 13000 lines of dialog. You might be able to whittle that down a little with one set of lines for all humans and one for all elves, but that still leaves beast races, which would need separate recording for each race AND gender (even if its the same actor). That takes up a lot of disc space, it take up a lot of time and it takes up a lot of money.

Those several sets of thousands of lines of dialog either come at the cost of NPC dialog variety and volume OR they come at the cost of cutting playable races from vanilla and only allowing us to play as humans and (potentially) elves. That's the only way it happens, there's no alternative to that as far as I'm aware, other than making EVERY male and female race sound identical, which simply won't fly with fans as there was enough unrest over the lack of certain races shouts in Skyrim.

So that gives me a glimmer of hope we will see Bethesda return to a silent protagonist in the next Elder Scrolls, a very, very faint one.