I prefer voiced protagonists.

Dumbed down compared to what? Morrowind doesn't really have dialogue, Oblivion has a few options for the PC to talk and Skyrim has 3 options which are the same over and over. Only Bethesda game that tried to do more with dialogue was FO3, but it isn't that impressive either. Quick edit - i would prefer the full sentence to be showed on screen, so that we agree on.

I have mixed feelings towards the choice to have a voiced protagonist.

On the one hand, I've personally never been a fan of silent protagonists in general. They work in games that don't center around the main character (like Portal or System Shock 2), but I always find the use of the silent protagonists in story-focused games to be incredibly jarring, even in games I like such as Dishonored or the Metro series. I never really feel like a character when I'm silent, instead just like the floating camera that I am. Plus, Fallout has always thrust you towards a particular goal or motive, so I don't have any problems from a role-playing perspective just because I can't imagine the sound of my own voice (a concept I've never really understood, to be honest).

On the other hand, I have doubts that the voiced protagonist was really worth the time and effort it took to accomplish. Previous protagonists still had a fair bit of personality in the actual dialogue they had to speak, if not in their delivery, not so much here. I really hate to say this, knowing how much work it must have taken to accomplish, but I don't think Fallout 4 has implemented the idea particularly well. The quadrant-based dialogue wheel is needlessly simplified and the choices made in conversation add little more than flavour text than actual meaningful consequence.

I'm not opposed to the idea overall, but I think Bethesda should stick to the silent protagonist until they can maintain parity with the dialogue in previous Fallouts.

If the voice changed nothing else - the dialogue was the same, the quests were the same, the options the same - then yes, I do like the voice.

But I cannot help but feel that in order to make the character 'accessible' with relatively neutral tones, the voice affected how polarising you can be. I cannot help but feel that the monetary investment would have not only stolen budget from other potential things, but also throttled how much player dialogue could be written in the first place.

The paraphrasing is also hideously bad - even worse than I first thought (yeah 'Sarcastic' is a really good indicator of whether I'm going to tell a joke, say something insensitive, or straight-up insult ), which can only be done with a voice protag, but that at least was fixed by the interface addon Full Dialogue Overhaul on PC. Certainly if they did something about that nightmare for people on consoles it would be more acceptable.

So overall I'm not a fan, even though I'm just the one person and it isn't my choice to make. I don't loathe it, I merely lament what it seems we might've missed out on.

You can branch slightly. But what bothers me is when I want to role play as a certain personality but the voice negates the personality I want. Unless a company is willing to invest heavily in multiple voices along with clear pathways of emotions than all it turns into is a gimmick that limits role playing. For those of us who care it is a big deal. For those of you who like to play Gears of War and COD (not talking crap) then it isn't a big deal. Its literally the difference between watching a movie as compared to reading those old school "pick your path" books. You know the ones that say "if you choose left turn to page 54."

I think they made somewhere between $1.5 and $2 billion bucks revenue and probably only $100 million or so production cost on Skyrim. If they are pinching pennies to be able to pay for voice actors AND therefore having to scrimp on writing or scripting or coding, then no amount of structural changes to the game could possibly help, because in that case they are either being slave driven by Zenimax else they are financially incompetent.

Not saying the vending machines at Bethesda HQ are likely to dispense caviar and Dom Perignon, but I doubt they are really that constrained budgetarily that using lots of voice actors forced them to make design cuts elsewhere.

I love having a voiced character, actually. And especially the dialog cameras. It adds a little more life to my character that's been missing for me in previous Beth games, for me.

BUT...

I knew as soon as it was announced that this was going to be highly controversial. Not even the moderators are all on the same page with this one.

Sure I think there's plenty of room for improvement but I like the new dialog system for the most part.

I can see why they didn't spell out the full sentence.

Its from a Radiant Quest though, not exactly the best way of proving a point.

I agree to an extent - When looked at in comparison with Elder Scroll games then I would argue the dialogue is an innovative step forward - When looked at in comparison with the Fallout series as a whole then it is a regression. In my opinion, for a Fallout ''RPG'' this title has a very streamlined and dull dialogue system that gives the illusion of choice and consequence.

Of the four options you get in dialogue they pretty much all lead to the same conclusion with the rare exception of a few. My main gripe with this game is the dialogue and unfortunately that aspect is detrimental to my entire experience. I can play other, better alternative action-adventure games like Borderlands.

It's not the fact that Bethesda has actors saying the lines now thats the problem (and seriously I doubt it took too much production time up) it's just Bethesda needs to give them more interesting things to say and tell certain ones to not sound noncholant about every single line.

The problem isn't that the protagonist is voiced, it's that they didn't really understand how to properly implement a dialogue system like this. The dialogue wheel more often than not leaves you with little to no idea what your character is going to say, so one is forced to quicksave and test each option to find the one they like. It's also a problem for me that there are very few 'follow up' dialogues. In New Vegas it was extremely common to have additional dialogue triggered by something, completing another quest, having a relevant item, knowing some relevant detail of information from another part of the world. I'll give an example.
In New Vegas (minor New Vegas spoilers incoming, you've been warned) you can inform House that the White Glove Society has resumed their cannibalistic ways. There's no quest trigger for that, but it's something relevant to him that Obsidian understood was reasonably likely to be something a player might want to bring up. In a dialogue system in an RPG, the dev can't account for every single thing a player might want to say, but they should account for all of the obvious things one might want to say. I... want to give examples, but spoilers. Suffice it to say, there was a lot more I wanted to talk about with certain individuals who led certain factions near the end of the game.

If the OP is referring to the old,

"Be who you want. Do what you want."

Then yes, a voiced player character is another small devolution of that style, because in previous Bethesda games each individual character I created had their own voice, which I heard in my head. But in Fallout 4 each and every guy I may one day create will all sound the same. You can't really be whoever you want when the developers have told you "This is how your character sounds".

But they've been heading in this direction with each new title, pre-defining our characters more and more. It is what it is. Whether or not it's a good thing is up to you.

I personally don't want it in the next Elder Scrolls but don't mind it in Fallout.

I'm not even sure it would be feasible in Elder Scrolls given that in the very least you would need separate human, elf, argonian and khajiit voices. It would be very strange to have your khajiit characters sound exactly like your orcish ones do.

Yeah, this would take way too long for them to do.

Yep. I gave them a pass with the Shouts in Skyrim but I hope they go with a silent protagonist next time.

Although they could hire one woman and one man for each race...

Or they'll just force you to play a certain race.

A voiced protagonist makes it feel more like I'm watching the actions play out, than I feel like I'm the person having the conversation. I'm not that much against it, but I certainly don't need it. I DO however like the NPC's to have voiced dialogue. I don't think I would've wanted to be without that.

It gets worse! Somebody delete this thread!!!

Having a voiced PC isn't the problem. The problems are: lack of dialogue choices, removal of options based on skill/SPECIAL/perks (Charisma check options are all that remain), and no options for different PC voice acting (having the same voice for my young scrawny nerd character, my eccentric old man character, and my middle-aged soldier character is immersion braking). Of these the last one I can live with since I understand the impracticality of having a voice actor to cover every possible angle.

What I can't stand is a PC with 10 Charisma and 10 Intelligence delivering dialogue the same as a PC with 1 Charisma and 1 Intelligence.

yeah i dont think the voice protagonist is the problem, actually i love he speak now since it make me connect alot more with it, i think the problem like other here have said is the choices u made, i wish there where more choice when i need to choose and no just 4.

But again this is the first time they implement a dialogue system like this, they probably will improve it for TES 6.

^^ This

I think the story, dialogue is great for someone who plays once and that's it. But the replay value is really bad. Yes you can play a different playstyle but that not great roleplaying.

This is where I'm at with it. It would have been better if they hadn't sacrificed so much of the game's soul to bring this to us. Voiced protagonists lend themselves well to immersive conversations, but the game lost so much just to have this one, well two, voices. There's so much that I feel has been lost and it makes me wonder whether or not it was really worth it just to hear the sometimes awkward delivery in Jack's voice (I blame the directing, not the actress).

It's like they really, REALLY, want to be a BioWare game (let's headhunt their VA's, copy their dialogue style and camera work, blatantly plagiarize some of their characters, accents and all), but they are still Bethesda and don't quite have all the nuance down of truly in-depth storytelling with deep character relationships. I really like the game (aside from the stupid opening quest) and I have 108ish hours in at this point, but it's still not a 10/10 game to me and this is why.

We lost choice, we lost freedom, and we lost individuality. I don't feel it was really worth it.

Voiced protagonist is THE WORST IDEA EVER by Beth.

PLEASE DONT TO THIS WITH TES.

PLEASE.

What an ENORMOUS mistake, seriously. It kills all the immersion. This was not meant to be in Bethesda games, that is more about The Witcher or other linear games having the same protagonist.