There is just so much amazing content in this game. Varied zones, characters, weapons, armor..etc, but why couldn't Bethesda have hired like 10 more people to do different voices. I just don't get it, and its even more frustrating when the same voice is used for different races. Belethor in Whiterun sounds like the general shop owner in Riverwood and one of the dark elves in Windhelm. Not to mention all of the guards use the same voice scripts. The least they could have done was not have the same voice for 4 or 5 people in one city that are all important quest givers. With how much effort they put into everything else why couldn't the voice acting have been given a little more time. At least have the people you did hire do more than 1 voice each. The accents were a nice touch, but not enough. Your much better than that Bethesda.

Hire 10 VAs? Fans complain. Hire 70? Fans still complain.

Maybe they didn't want to throw away any more money.

I only problem I have with the voice acting is when they're voice changes mid sentences or conversation. It's like they hired a guy to the lines but decided to add more later and had to use a different voice actor. This has happened to several characters, mainly those in bigger quests.

Hehe, good point, LC! Lol, maybe they DID hire 1000 Voice Actors.....but the bus the recordings were on crashed into the ocean, therefor destroying all those unique voices!

if they hired 70 va's i wouldnt complain at all, this post would have never even been made. and i wouldn't call it throwing away money to make a game that has such a rich environment also feel like its populated by more than 7 different character types.

I like the VA. Only nit-picky thing I don't like is all the guards have the same voice. Other than that, hats off to Beth.

The OP has a valid point, imo. I would think that adding different voices or even just 'some' different voices for the guards, for example, would certainly help create a more immersive element to the game. Lol, especially having EVERY male guard sound like Ahnold is not necessarily a good thing....

'NO lollygagging!!'

hehe....

I used to be...

Never mind..

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Voice_Actors. Problem is that most of them only do a specialty character.

I just dont like the strong austrian voice for the guards they use

GET TO THE CHOPPA! - Arnold Swartznegger

well that shut up my point a little, lol. although i guess now im more confused that they had so many voice actors but didn't spice it up a little more. oh well, none of this will stop me from enjoying one of the best games i've ever played though.

You know what would have been cool?

Skyrim could of made an official contest to pick a voice amongst many of the players and implant it into one of the characters and name the character over the real person, now that would be cool

( I know its Off Topic, but still)

They did ok with the number. Where they goofed is having different voice actors say the same lines. That's just silly.

Let's not forget about the shoddy audio support. How much does that help make voices sound the same? Having to turn audio quality down to solve crashes, popping sounds, NPC voices fading out, etc., isn't a good thing.

Uldred

I have none of those problems.

If an amateur modding team like SureAI can bring in over 50 professional voice actors, I fail to see why a big company like Bethesda can't bring in at least twice that. I think they need to get over this obsession with bringing in famous celebrities. Really... nobody cares. Fable III had famous voice actors. Did it make the game any less [censored]? No. Unknown professional voice actors would suffice. In fact, the last thing I want in a fantasy game is to hear an NPC talk and think "that's [insert famous celebrity]". The more unknown and less earthlike they sound, the better.

The reused dialogue bothers me as well. Although in the case of the guards, I wonder whether they did this intentionally to create catchphrase memes.

Pretty much this. For the money they paid all these famous voice actors I'm sure they could've hired a tousand unknown but still good ones.

They have a lot of NPCs use the same voice to cut down on file size.

The person doing the court mage in White Run is rather blend. And he does other characters as well. Poor voice acting is much worse then having the same voice used with many characters. People who do the voices in cartoons on tv are usually the same, but they somewhat alter their voice to fit the characters. Which is something the VA's in games don't seem to be able to.

I don't have a problem with voices at all. I was even happy with Oblivion, even if the voicing style seemed to bother many. Hell, I'd even be more happy if there weren't voices at all Remember the topic list in Daggerfall?

It's not like they'd have to pay the unknown ones much either. I bet a lot would love to be involved just to add it to their CV / portfolio.

Hopefully this will no longer be an issue next generation.

I liked his voice acting. Some of it sounded like he was reading off a paper, but ive heard people in real life talk like that.

they definitely needed more voices for the generic population. you just keep hearing the same ones over and over - doesn't help that they all start talking as sooon as you are anywhere near them.

also, doesn't help that you somewhat distinctive voices. actors i hear on a lot of characters:
- claudia christensen (ivanova from b5) once i recognized her, i heard her everywhere. she is the smith in whirerun, the jarl in rifen and at least half the generic nord women you meet.
- pretty much all the nord guys are one voice too, including ralof and hakon. it's paul ganus (i keep thinking he sounds like bratac from sg1, but it's not the same guy, just similar voice). if you join the stormcloaks, you will hear his voice (and the guy who voices ulfric) almost exclusively during that quest line.
- all the male dark elves i have heard are keith szarabajk (looked up the spelling . the vampire hunter guy who tormented angel during season 3. you hear him a lot in other games and in animation too.
- lani minella is all the female dark elves and several named npcs too. she has a really recognizable voice too. i remember her from a lot of fantasy games, but the only one i can think of atm is dungeon siege.
- heard linda carter (wonder woman) again, she used to be all the nords and orcs in oblivion, now she's just a few people though. i think she was azura too.
- heard the oblivion guard guy again, wes johnston. not only sheogorath, but several other places too.

if they really had 70 actors, they definitely underused them.

maybe the fans could do the VA for free i guess there are a few who probably already dress and have real alter egos as TES characters