Agreed, I'll probably play as a female in my first run. She sounded far better than the male. Hopefully by my second run there'll be mods to remove voices.

Even right before and after the E3 conference there were multiple threads and polls. After a game announcement the forum is flooded with new members who are were usually brought on board with the previous title or what they saw at E3.

Even then there was very solid majority against a voiced protagonist. It's fine in some games and it's even preferred, but in other games it only serves to detract from the whole. Bethesda seems to think that limited options will somehow make their story and writing better, but New Vegas proved it was possible while drastically increasing the number of options.

Actually, they seem to think they have the cash to spend in roder to prevent VA's from limiting options.

Where do we get these numbers from, though? (I'm not pro or con regarding the convo you're having, just curious)
I've tried looking through the Wiki (when it was first announced F4's PC would have 13K) and couldn't find anything conclusive, aside from going through all characters one by one, looking for their .txt files and tabulating that way.

But letting it rattle around in my head, I can't think that the PC in NV had half of those 60K lines. Some NPC's will have multiple lines, as opposed to just one, as a reply, with variances in those lines reflecting the PC's standing and their impact on the world.
Then there are NPCs that don't bring up a dialogue tree, but just have a line, where the PC says nothing, unless you're counting whatever button/key you're pressing for "talk". Then there are NPCs that will say something without being "talk" prompted by the PC at all. Not just NPC's talking among themselves, but raiders saying things like "you're dead meat!" and "I'm outta here!", all of the lines for radio DJ's, as well as scripted events where you enter an area and an NPC initiates dialogue.
In short, NPC's say a lot more than replies to dialogues given by the PC.

I am still going with 13k lines being roughly a novels worth of words.
Granted, many of these are likely to be multiple ways to initiate or reply to a conversation.
It is still an audio book worth of recorded dialogue.

Another thing to consider is that in this game, Since the protagonist is voiced- as not to rely on it too much, they may have the NPC's do the vast majority of the talking.
Take my wife for instance (no, please take her *ba-dum-dum*). When she comes home from work, I am treated to a story full of tragedy and mystery- a Shakespearean tale, really.
And all I might say throughout the whole conversation is "Wow", or "Nuh-uh!" or, "...And that's why I think your company is a front for the Mexican Mafia".
Basically, can the amount of dialogue our PC has be a barometer for total amount of dialogue and or story?

Except it will act as a limitation; It's guaranteed. It will limit the number of roles (not something I'm particularly against) and limit the amount of dialogue and options. Unless you honestly believe that adding the cost and time of a voiced protagonist will not have had any impact on the number of lines.

If you access the dialogue files the lines are numbered: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Dead_Money_dialogue_files%C2%A0

Actually there is more a notion of pretentious behaviour with a VA pc than one without it. You are essentially arguing that PC should be exprienced emphathetically. Which totally supports the idea of lack of immersion. So who are we the player base? A puppet master? A god? I'd rather play as the Lone wonderer.

The Voiced Protagonist might make Quest Mods awkward to play. However, if that's the case, then there won't be many quest mods.

It could also make modded companions a bit awkward, unless a mod comes out later in the game's life that replaces the voice actor with an actor from the mod community. Wait... that would actually be awesome if the actor for both versions of the protagonist is willing to work with the mod community to voice certain lines. Yet another thread that could connect Bethesda to its mod community!

My character's voice is quite similar to Jennifer Anniston. But it's not actually portrayed by the voice actress for the female protagonist.

But like how I refused to play Skyrim until there was an attributes mod, I'll probably wait until there is a mod which brings the dialogue back to the old system. Or the unlikely case that Jennifer would voice all those lines.

Maybe not as bad as it seems.

You could probably get by if you had a load of stock phrases and prompts-

"Who are you?", "I need some information", "Go on", "I've heard enough", "Fine, I'll do it", "It'll cost you", "have you ever heard of this [hands NPC a piece of paper]"...

Mainly, just let the NPCs do all the talking.

I'm sure Modders will find ways to deal with it.

I think there will be an option like in any game to reduce voice volume and you can just turn that down, might even be one for player char only, i however do not mind the voiced protagonist i welcome the change, but i am also a good-guy player i just do not have that evil guy in me, like some people have stated the bad guy voice and reactions might not be all that appealing to the vindictive players, and might ruin their experience in the game, but i would like to think they have it covered as well.

Would recommend people listen to the podcast MrMattyPlays has posted on youtube where they talk with the male protagonist voice actor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGnCrgw9BU0

I think he explains it well how they go through the motion of emotions for the character.

I suspect this will be the case. It's really not too much of a difference considering the countless mods that exist without voice work already. The only additional hurdle is people scouring the voice files for useable dialogue like you said.

Hmm, that reminds me..... did anyone ever come up with one of those?

I don't really think turning off the voice would change anything since the whole system is built around a voiced PC now. The silence would just seem weird and it would look odd that the mouth and face is moving without there being a voice. If they went with voiced PC they did so for a reason and I'd rather see it fully implemented than half-assed. Couldn't vote since my opinion wasn't listed =)

Yup, here you go - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/13968/?

Once I found out that the mod existed, I immediately went and bought Skyrim. No joke.

This, the tricks is to have the player answering questions.

Main issue will be stuff like romances where it will not work, main reason why its nice if its in the game.

Now somebody will probably make an advanced story based quest with full voice acting where your caracter is unable to speak at all

think the lady in easy money.

Oh, I don't know. Could be fun cutting up existing lines to shoe horn them into your script-

"You're still the bomb, sugar. But 100% ice cold."

Always prefer a silent protagonist (or at least one who responds through text options only), especially when given the option to actually create your own character. Voiced protagonists will always force a personality onto your character, it's just not something that is necessary or adds anything to these types of games, but it definitely takes much away from them. Every game doesn't need to ape Hollywood with "emotional stories" and professionally voiced protagonists, distinguishing yourself in the AAA space is a good thing.

For me, Bethesda games have always largely been about creating your own character and exploring an intriguing world steeped in atmosphere and lore. You create your own story, you imagine your own past or even make it (as in growing up in Fallout 3). I'm still fairly unhappy these recent changes, and I truly pray they don't bleed into the next Elder Scrolls title.

My main concern is... Will they actually properly build in a timed silent dialog system into the game and FO4 GECK for the modders, or will someone in the modding community once again have to jury-rig something up so dialog without associated audio files don't just zip by? It would affect the Player Character itself this time, and we obviously won't have access to Mr. Delaney or Ms. Taylor.

I think everyone should at least give it a chance. I've listened to and read a few interviews with the voice actors and they seem awesome. Not to mention all the care and effort they say went into this process. Most game companies bring their voice actors in at the last minute. Bethesda brought them in for over 2 years now.

I was very iffy about the inclusion of a voiced protagonist at first. After getting to know Brian T. Delaney and Courtenay Taylor a little better and learning how much care went into this, and how enthusiastic they are about it, I feel much, much better about the voiced protagonist. That being said, I also think if someone wants to turn the voices off they should have that choice and they most likely will via mods.

Look I don't mind a voiced protagonist I just hope that they do it right like Witcher 3 and dragon age inqisition.

It seems you're of the impression that the problem most of us have is with the assumed quality of the voice acting as opposed to voiced protagonists in general. The vast majority of AAA games have voiced protagonists and have for some time, many of us don't like it and long for the days of silent protagonists or protagonists who responded through text. Or at least the days when SOME games in the AAA space offered this option.

Their personalities and enthusiasm for the project are utterly irrelevant, we're not questioning any of these things, we're questioning/disappointed with the decision to change from text responses in the first place. I don't need to personally experience that in the game to know I would always have preferred the old system of silent protagonist responding through text.

Don't count on it. Modders will jury rig.

I like voiced dialog.. I feel less like a mute statue that way.

Agreed with that part.

*reading through the entire thread*

What? Is this what it's come to?

*sigh* If it really tickles your feathers about a voice protagonist, then just ignore it and focus on the other aspects of the game. If a voice protagonist really ruins the whole game for you, you obviously haven't been playing the same games I do.

Case in point? Dragon Age: Inquisition. I played both Origins and Inquisition, and, although I feel Origins was stronger gameplay-wise, storywise, Inquisition's voice protagonist made the game better. I knew nothing about the World of Dragon Age, and my character's voice just felt natural to me. I never speak for my character, since I'm more focused on 1) playing the game or 2) enjoying the narrative. The voice actually doesn't bother me, since my experience with Inquisition hardened me to that. If I wanted to roleplay, I would do it by action rather than through dialouge. The silent protagonist's dialogue feels more unnatural to me than a voiced one, since I have no clue what the character actually says.