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Originally posted by TheCrimsomBlade: There are 4 well known actors M/F and 10-20 something others doing other voices. There is also the option of readable text if you want to set it for voice or both voice and text.

Even with 30 actors, that's still 30+ npc voices per actor. Not counting the fact that the well known actors will be restricted in the number of npcs they give voice to. You don't think that's going to be a bit... Samey'?

The option of on-screen text is mandatory. I can't imagine a voice-powered game being released without it. But no text-only option?

Originally posted by TheCrimsomBlade: I really like the Idea of being able to stand off to the side and over hear two or three NPC's talking about things happening in the country without a box poping up with the same thing in print.

A valid point. But if it meant richer (un-dumbed) dialogue without having their voice characteristics forced on me, i'd actually prefer a pop-up box. That's just me...

Originally posted by TheCrimsomBlade: If you don't like PC's and NPC's talking to each other and really prefer to read the story then go buy a book. (...)there are 80,000 other games on the shelves for you to read and 40 million books at the library with much better stories.

Oblivion in paperback? Lone Wolf just don't cut it no more. CRPGs and books; Chalk and cheese. They can't be compared one to the other.

Better stories? Better than the dynamic story that is generated in my head as i play? Not likely. I love rpgs and i love books. But for different reasons. ES rpgs sacrifice quality and diversity of character for flexibility of story. Books are inflexible in story but have better presentation through richer dialogue and characterisation. (Well, a good book at least!) But what i'm saying is that there's no reason why ES rpgs can't have this same level of quality. If only they'd make better use of 5 fraggin' gigabytes!

Originally posted by TheCrimsomBlade: I think it's going to be great to have some NPC walk up to me and not have to read or hear the same line over and over from every NPC in the game and I hate that big POP UP BOX with the list of what you want to hear for the NPC. Then because of what I do throughout the rest of the game it will determin what that same NPC will say to me the next time I talk to him or her.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, and i'm sorry for sounding cynical, but even 5Gb of spoken dialogue isn't gonna solve the generic speech syndrome. I cannot imagine the npcs being head and shoulders above those in Morrowind in terms of uniqueness of character. I'd love to be proven wrong, but common sense tells me they're gonna have to cut corners somewhere. 5Mb of speech per npc isn't a lot...

Originally posted by TheCrimsomBlade: To worry about MODS and the voice acting later is kind of dumb or else you are really a Newb to RPG games. (...) The RPG world and the Modders of today have come a long way and to worry about bad voice acting is a waist of time as long as the MOD's are good and they get the ideas across then who really cares if they are not perfect voice actors its only a game and all about having fun so try to do that because I really like what I've seen so far and can't wait for the day its in my hands.

Thinking ahead isn't a newb trait. Nor is it dumb. The reason i brought the mod issue up in the first place was because of Bethesda's tendency to leave certain important elements of their world 'blank'. There are countless examples of player made mods that present ideas that make you think: "Wow, that should have been part of the original." Oblivion will be the same. But through no fault of Bethesda's. There's only so much one team can implement after all. And they have provided the means for players to incorporate their own ideas. But the whole voice thing is going to isolate the after market mods from the original. Although, as i ponted out, this is a minor issue for most. Still, it would be good if they provided some means of access to voice talent to promising modders...

Originally posted by TheCrimsomBlade: Alot of us have been playing RPG's scence the early 80s and with only pencils and GraphPaper with each of the players sitting around a coffee table makeing up everything on the fly as we played and you want to talk about crapy acting and really stupid sounding voices you should have been around back then.

I am a PnP virgin. But again, it's apples and oranges. As a pencil and paper player yourself, i'm sure you'd agree that it can't really be compared to crpgs.

Originally posted by TheCrimsomBlade: There are alot of things in Oblivion that has never been done before and some people are going to like it and others will complain but, they will have to live with it or go play something else.

Haha! Wrong you are. I'm gonna play it, love it and complain loudly. For that is how progress is made.

For 10 or so years now, i've been toying around with various ideas for the perfect rpg. Sometime since then i realised that the perfect rpg is a myth but that doesn't stop me from thinking and dreaming. Bethesda is the only company with a product that even comes close to my thoughts on the perfect rpg. "Go anywhere, do anything". That's where the future's at. The concept that they've been pioneering is so full of potential that i can't help but stick my two bits in.