Because it's so damn logical that it doesn't need to be explained; but I will for the sake of it. I come up to a character in Morrowind. I then speak to him/her/it. I see a list of topics to my right. I click on one and get a good, solid answer. Sweet. I leave the conversation and go up to another NPC. I start the conversation and see the same topic that I've just talked about with the other NPC. So I click it, thinking that the person will have his own opinion on the subject; but no. He says the exact same thing! So I run around the town, asking others about the same topic and all of them say the same thing. And you're talking about immersion... See when I "speak" to someone in Morrowind, it feels like every person is a living encyclopaedia. The whole game freezes and you read a wall of text. I Might as well read the books. "But you use your imagination! I imagine the NPC and me talking to each other and stuff!!".

1. You don't talk to each other. The NPC is giving you a lecture.
2. If OBs conversations weren't so stiff and more like Mass Effects, they would rock. What I mean is that it does not freeze the world around you when you speak to someone with only their mouth moving, but you can actually see them as a whole and can move your head while they do hand gestures, face gestures, some walking about ect.

Oblivions dialogue was less informative, yes. But why care so much when you hear the same thing in Morrowind all the time anyway? You do in Oblivion too (Like the rumours), but it comes down to one thing: OB included not only sight, but hearing into the experience. THAT is immersion.

EDIT:



WoW came out 5 years ago. It's also an MMO. MMOs have so much content and quests that they're obviously going to be voiced... But wait- The Old Republic! Even MMOs are changing.

Why are people discussing this on the Skyrim General section ? We all know that it will have Full Voice-over...
This topic should be moved.

*points at Fallout* They should have it be important characters.

I'd prefer to have only partial voice overs

It breaks immersion far more if I have a NPC that has several different voices or says the exact same thing as everyone else.

... As opposed to Oblivion, where the NPCs all have different, insightful opinions on the topic ?

I agree on the sameness of the answers, but unless Skyrim is going to have unique lines for each NPCs, it simply isn't as obvious if it's not voiced. Especially when there's what, five or six different voices for all ?

I didn't say that Oblivion did. Actually I mentioned rumours and the like being same-y somewhere in the post.

Didn't people in Morrowind kind of all say the same stuff..?

That's a good argument, but do you realize that in oblivion different NPCs often said the same phrases to talk about the same topics? Since they were shorter they were harder to notice and they had different (but equally dull) tones. The topics being repeated in Morrowind are in no way connected to the voice-overs/not voice-overs discussion. If it were, it would be obvious how it's far easier to write different answers than to write and voice different answers. It's natural, written dialogue will *always* be more practical to handle than voiced dialogue.



The discussion touches the TES series as a whole and has significance in relation to future titles. Since many people expect Skyrim to be more immersive than Oblivion and more similar to Morrowind, i believe this thread is appropriate in this forum section.

I don't know why everyone champions Morrowind's dialogue system. Regular NPCs repeated generic dialogue in both games, and both games had varied dialogue for the "important characters." The only difference is that Morrowind had more of these "important characters" because they had way more guilds and factions. This could be fixed in Skyrim to get the best of both worlds. They probably couldn't add as many as Morrowind but they could definitely do a lot more than Oblivion.

Yes I know that people in Oblivion said the same thing when asked about the topic. I guess I will say it just to make it clearer: OBLIVIONS DIALOGUE DID REPEAT. I found it a bit more immersive because people told me short, more human like answers instead of essays. But that's me ye' see.

EDIT: I will give you an example:


MORROWIND:

You - Excuse me, could you tell me about the Nerevarine?

Random Tramp - Ahh yes! Let me tell you something about that interesting subject...

5 hours later...

Random Tramp - ...and that is the story of the legendary leader of the Dunmer race!

You - O_o


OBLIVION:

You - Excuse me, could you tell me about the Nerevarine?

A Noble - It's the dude who saved Morrowind or some shizz.

You - Ermm...


It's a matter of opinion. I used a bit of hyperbole right there by the way.

Indeed you did. I stick to my point, tho :

Hearing the same stuff repeated aloud verrrrry sloowly by countless people in all of five voices, no, that's an immersion-breaker.

I get what you're saying. If there was more content to the dialogues, if all NPCs had different lines, if there was a lot of different voices, acting rather than reading... That would be great. I don't think it's a realistic outcome, though : as Ayreos pointed out, text only is much more easier to handle than voice and text. And since you can't get all, I'd rather - knowing full well it won't happen - have them work on refining a partial voice-over than scrapping with the Oblivion system. *shrug*

I've read this for awhile and it seems to have turned into a which is better argument between oblivion and morrowind.
Both games were good. Though morrowind had longer dialouge reading would get dull. As for Oblivion they did have voice but the voice didnt seem to have spirit i wanna feel how the npc feels like if their father got killed they should be in a maybe crying state not just be like "oh well hes dead."


For people who say text is better some people who still have classes and courses to go to may need a break from all that reading to where voice over would come a handy.

Yeah, but they all had a lot more to say than Oblivion people.

I'd also like to note that listening to long speeches is far more tiresome (to me) than reading the same amount of text. It takes way longer to digest the same information, and you don't know when it ends.

Oblivion didn't really have that problem because dialogues were rather short. But I can't tell if that's a better choice, it's like chosing between two evils. :shrug:

I see. "If there was more content to the dialogues, if all NPCs had different lines, if there was a lot of different voices, acting rather than reading..." - We all can dream.

Okay, but you will have to agree that the unnaturally repetitive dialogue in Morrowind (make topics less accessible in the CS) is easier to fix than Oblivion's dull and meager voice acting (redo everything...better!)~

Personally I would prefer only partial voice overs. Morrowind was way easier to mod new quests for than Oblivion was, because without professional voice actors, you were forced to make voiceless dialogue for your quests, which stood out like a sore thumb.

That said, there's no way they're going to make it partially voiced, unfortunately. I just hope that they have better voice acting. Case and point: Dark Elves in Oblivion vs the Dark Elves in Morrowind. Need I say more?

I understand why (some) people don't want voice overs. However, this poll seems to be about how it is for immersion, is it not? I don't understand how anyone could possibly think reading text is more immersive (read: normal) than hearing people speak.

Edit: And one other thing: look at other games that do voice overs really well. Games like Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, etc. Would you like *these* games to be text too? Games with very well done voice overs are far superior to any text game and they always will be.

I saw a mudcrab the other day...

:lmao:

At least it works as a comeback.

Morrowind had a mod group, called LGNPC, or less generic NPCs, which added lots and lots of background and life details to all the cities and villages around the game world, and gave those NPCs a lot of small details, and emotions, and added lots of small to large quest lines to each town and village.

It added a lot of drama between the people, and made believable links between them and love, rivalry, treachery, and so on...

I like to see some such mod add-on in a fully voice acted game without breaking the immersion a lot.

The poll specifically says "TES" games~ I won't deny that games like Mass Effect work the best with voice-overs, but their design is far better tailored for it and can't be compared with TES.

Anyway yes, text is still more immersive than average voice actors' speech. The human imagination works the best when it is stimulated, not fed every detail. I believe full voice-overs are too much information, too close to an interactive movie, too far from a book. Morrowind had a better balance of these elements...

Daggerfall wasn't strictly text...






Halt halt halt halt halt halt halt halt halt halt halt.

FINE i changed it in the poll, happy? Geez.

Stole the words from my mouth.