I couldn't help but feel accurately insulted when the court wizard of Whiterun told me I had a blank stare. He's kind of right. Dragonborn doesn't ever look around or turn his/her head. Just blinks and stares, really.

I at least liked it in Oblivion when my character would make eye contact with NPCs whenever they were close enough or passing by. Hell, I've even seen him smile at NPCs programmed to have enough Personality stats to trigger that response. In Skyrim, he just looks straight ahead and doesn't give any attention to anything. You can even turn your back to a dragon.

What are your thoughts? Do you mind being acknowledged by nearly everything in a virtual world, but your avatar not acknowledge anything in it?

hm well for my dragon born she was thrusted into her role with a response along the lines of "this some ol [censored]" never truly accepting her dragon soul...that said....shes also dumb as a mudcrab

If you're busy staring at your character and expecting a reaction then I understand why you come to this conclusion....it would be a nice touch to add some more facial animation. But really, I'm in first person most the time, and as a roleplayer, I don't bother waiting for my character to physically look around and exhibit emotion when I could just do it myself.

I suppose you're looking for your character to wave at PC's or something? I mean, I play first person, but I look around quite a bit, and check out the people passing by, etc. I don't wave, but I do occassionaly click on NPC's (mainly just to see if they'll say something new).

Overall, I suppose it would be a harmless touch, but for me, this isn't a personal interaction game, it's a kill things game. So the fact that my character does wave or say "hi guard" as I pass NPC's doesn't bother me much.

That, or I'm just the strong silent type. One or the other.

I suppose it only stands out to me more because I played more in third person for Skyrim as well as Oblivion and Morrowind. It's also probably because I keep wanting to see my character do all the social animations that I see NPCs do when I interact with them. Just a LITTLE personality would have been nice.

I've also had role-playing moments in my gaming experiences, and some of them were enhanced by simply seeing that my character was making eye contact with someone or something. Looking up at the new Gatekeeper, or looking down at a fallen foe, for example.

I play in first person, the camera is my head, the character's facial expressions are my own.

Doom already solved this issue:

http://img39.photobucket.com/albums/v120/SteelFox15/doom_icon_final3.gif

I totally agree with you. In Oblivion the head moved to face others and smiled and showed anger. It's a 3rd person player thing. It does seem weird your character can be so emotionless. Oh well...

Oblivion did have idle animations for your avatar, plus he would turn his head to look at NPCs walking close and actually smile or scowl at NPCs who's good or bad disposition triggered a response. He would even reach over and pat his horse's neck if he stopped for a moment. I did play a lot in third person and you notice these things if you do. The Skyrim "hero" is pretty lifeless in that regard.

Dragonborn's too badass to smile/scowl/pat

I wish while we were idle, we at least would do the whole "crossed arms" or "hands on hips" thing, or at least something other than staring off into space while talking.

It takes 11 muscles to grin.
It takes 12 muscles to frown.
It takes 0 muscles to not give a [censored].

Now, my Dragonborn advocates conserving energy. I don't know about you guys.

Soul-less = Badass?

I suppose badass is whatever you define it as personally. But to me, when my character's reaction to everything I see and do is ' :I ' (even when the sight or act is 'badass' by stupidly-over-the-top movie standards), the only word I can think of is bland.

And on Bethesda's part? Missing out on another 'micro-detail' opportunity that could have gone a long way :[

Seen a dragon smile at anyone? Muahah! Its your soul.. You're eyes are a mirror of your soul (they say)

I don't notice because I only play in first-person.

At the very least, dragons can turn their heads and look at you depending on where you are and how close you are to them.

I guess you also need the body of a dragon to do that; not just the soul. Darn my humanoid vessel >:C

there was a mod for oblivion that gave you all kinds of idle animations; you would shiver when it rained, hold your side when you were wounded, etc. it really helped to support the idea that my character was a mortal creature and not a soulless doll being lead around by my every command.

really, just some sort of facial animations would do the trick. there are a whole bunch of animations you can have that support any kind of RP, as long you are RPing a mortal creature who feels pain and cold and all that (which i assume most people are). just have the PC look around, scratch his nose, shiver when it snows, have a tired look when your out of stamina or low on health... hopefully theyre will be a mod for skyrim like the oblivion one that can do this.

If there are hostiles in the area your character will scowl...thats about it.

Exactly! Or it might have to do with the heavy, reinforced daedric armor everyone is runnin around with? That you can move is just a miracle.. Your helmet is simply to heavy for you