*minor spoilers*
I feel that the emotional context in Skyrim was rather bland. I didn't feel much of a connection to any of the characters besides, say Paarthanax, because his dialogue was interesting and you had the option to kill him or betray the blades to save him and you could ask him about it directly. Other than that, I didn't feel like any of the characters in the game really stood out. It was hard to care about anyone's life in the game besides your own. I wish that in future dlcs they could have more emotional quests where you actually had options to say different things or act in more than one of two ways: Kill the npc or help it. Like if you saw a group of bandits attacking a small farm and was harrassing the family, you could in turn save them or help them, but it would be a legitimate sense of good or evil and you could actually feel some emotion if the family begged for help. An example of failed emotional context in Skyrim was when you first enter Markarth and you see the Forsworn agent about to attack the women shopping. If you save her and talk to her she says in an extremely lackluster way, "That man almost killed me. Thanks, Here take this necklace." l just want more emotion in the acting. The voice acting in Skyrim wasn't bad, but most characters lacked any kind of basic emotion. It was really just as if they were reading the lines from a script. Overall I just want the acting and the emotion to come through more because if the npc's "cared" more about their own lives I might start to feel the same way. The quests need to have significantly deeper choices and more depth. If you disagree or not or if there was a quest or npc that you really cared about mention it because I'm sure not all of the quests and npcs lack emotion just most of them. If the narrative could be improved, the overall immersion would be greatly improved.

One npc who could use a little bit more emotion is Cicero. His voice is really wild and exaggerated, but he delivers his lines from a neutral stance. His voice-over is the only one in the game that I can't stand because his body doesn't match what he's saying so it stands out as bad acting. It would be great if while he spoke he leaned around, tilted his head, waved his hands around etc. and it would have accomplished what Bethesda set out to when they created the character. Right now though, he stands only as a testament to the limitations of voice acting and the importance of character animation and body language to effectively convey emotion.

Not to sound like an old fogey, but I still think that a large part of the character-attachment or lack thereof comes from spoken rather than written dialogue. NPCs could say a lot more, and weren't bogged down by dodgy voice acting. I know we're not going to go back to that, though.

The problem with having voice-acted characters with too much emotion is really that, once you've heard them passionately say something three or four times, it will probably sound bored to the ear.

Especially if they deliver a dramatic speech or a scream of terror/joy from a neutral stance. It just reminds you that you're listening to a pre-recorded line spewed out from a pre-made character.

Yah thats true. People dont want to hear someone scream for help numerous times like a real scream. And I do remember when dialogue was just text but even if it is just text it can have a lot more meaning. What Im trying to understand is how to improve Skyrim's emotion in a logical way without it becoming annoying. I think that if Bethesda impoved the script the actors might get more into the emotion of the lines and the overall experience would benefit. Cicero was a good voice actor, in that the actor gave it some effort. I am not too worried about the animations but more about the actual dialogue or content of the quest, but it is true that the animation could be better suited to the actual phrases the npc is saying. I would just like better scripts with more depth, not just for the actors but for the player and since a DLC is not as big as Skyrim they could focus more or dialogue and character choices. I just want to get this out there so It happens.

What? 99% of the voice acting is excellent, there just isn't much depth to most of the writing when it comes to the characters. You deal with maybe 5-10 lines of dialogue for some of the more "interactable" NPCs, hardly enough time to get attached to them.

I agree with the panda. I think Morrowind's way of handling character dialogue was perfect (though the quality of said dialogue is debatable). Having the character introduce themselves with voice acted speech, then the rest of the dialogue written means that a player reading the dialogue will automatically imagine the text in the character's voice and, if the writing is good, the player will add emotion and depth to the character just through how he imagines the character speaking. This reduces the chance of bad voice acting, since so little of the dialogue is voice acted, and means that Beth can spend less resources on paying voice actors. Though I doubt this will happen in the Skyrim DLC or many future big games, because publishers assume that players will dismiss a game without voice acted dialogue. I don't think this is true, though. Most people just skip the voice acting and read the subtitles anyway. I know I do, except if what the NPC is saying is significant to the story (speaking to Paarthunax and the Greybeards, for example) or the voice acting is especially good (like with Karliah or Cicero).

Btw I loved Karliah's acting, forgot about her. The thieves guild main quest was one of my favorites. But yes the voice acting is good in the main quests of the game. But the actual script could be better. Plus I am not just talking about the voice acting, but the actual emotion in the game. The player choices, the events that take place, and the voice acting and text are all part of this. If there were more quests where you didn't just have to go and kill a leader at the end of a dungeon, but got involved in the characters then it would have more depth. In Bethesda's Fallout you were given numerous dialogue choices to choose from and there was a ton of more responses. If Skyrim had more options in the speech department and had more signifigant characters, like Sheogorath in the Shiviering Isles than I wouldnt be complaining. It just seems that most of the voices seem bored or detached and and script isn't as good for the not most impotant quests. If the rest of the game put as much emotion as it did in the thieves guild quests or the Interesting dialogue of Paarthurnax I wouldnt complain.

I liked Farengar Secret-Fire's voice acting. I really felt connected to his outstanding and powerful dialogue. I recommend that everyone who does not remember him goes to Dragonsreach and rejoice in his presence. He is a testament to all the effort put into voice acting in this game. this is sarcasm, the lowest form of wit, to accompany the lowest form of dedication embodied in any voice actor I have seen.

Great post!

This is why i said that Skyrim is so monotonous. Lack of emotions and text, plus bad quest design, storytelling, music.

Some voices are good. But some sounds like A. Schwarzenegger with a little bit different accent.

I am just preying that Bethesda sees this and implements some beautiful quests and voice acting in the DLCs with lore and text and depth but whats one post gonna do...

They did this in Oblivion.

I don't expect it to be in The Witcher or Mass Effect league because these games are more story oriented.

But this in Skyrim is so bad.

One quest example; i have entered Cidhna mine, the most secure prison in Skyrim. After 20 minutes i'm escaping this the most secure prison through tunnel. This tunnel is so visible and has simple door which can be unlocked with a key. And a prisoner has a key.

Wait a minute! What is this?

Agreed. The way NPCs move and conduct themselves is fairly stiff and rigid, as in previous Beth titles. Fairly unnatural. Also when (i.e.) taken into account Cicero's ludicrous dialogue.

The Cidna Mine quest made absolutely no sense. Not very deep or thought out at all. Just another example of why I want the DLC quests to be much better. I mean if you hear a bad voice actor or see that a quest is way to simple just fix it. Obviously there are no time constraints because it has been almost 8 months since Skyrim has released and still no DLC, but I cant complain just yet. I will have to let the DLC speak for itself..

Another few odd details that should be fixed.

1) WHEN characters greet you

2) HOW the greet you

3) If Ulfrick is giving the speech, why is EVERY NPC in the room looking at me? The head tracking is Skyrim is horrible. You could be across town and every NPC would be looking in your direction as they go about their business.

The funny thing is, i actually love Farengar's voice.
Like not even being sarcastic. I actually love it.
I dont understand why everyone hates it?

I'll probably get burned at the stake for stating this, but Bethesda should,(probably already has)take a look at how Kingdoms of Amular was written and implemented. While the quests in this game still are sometimes lackluster, they have a pretty consistent sense of purpose, with a variety of characters, who often have an ACTIVE role within the adventure you've decided on. Quite often you find multiple staged quests, not as lengthy as the mains, but long enough to establish a sense of connection to the characters who either accompany you, or re-appear at the various stages. And these characters generally have decently written and often times "meaningfull" things to say.

This helps dilute much of the "sameness" feeling (been there, now doing it again) Skyrim suffers from. There is generally more back story which is given to the PC before a commitment is made. You've a choice then to commit then , or put it off to later or choose not to play at all, based on if it sounds interesting. Not saying Skyrim doesn't have these things at all, they just didn't use them very well IMO.

As for the lines each character has in the repetoire, in KOA most characters can speak on 5 - 6 topics, and your're the one which institutes a repeat of a said line. The weird thing in Skyrim is that often a character accosts you with their spiel, then when you say OK , what do you want?, you get to hear that spiel all over again! This doesn't happen in KOA. And while there is obviously instances of voice actors playing different characters, it doesn't seem be as common for some reason. Possibly because they are not quite as vocally distinctive from each other, and almost all are voiced in psuedo "european english" inflections. Somehow, it just worked better.

I just want deeper quests, better dialogue text and acting, and more player dialogue choices, instead of the one forced response that players have no choice but to pick to continue. They know how to do it but for a game as large as Skyrim I can see how they can get lazy after awhile for some of the little quests. But for the DLCs they must NOT be lazy...

Vanilla Skyrim?

Bethesda would need a better writing team, which is not going to happen within the course of one dlc release

I completely agree.

Vanilla Skyrim means the game before any mods or DLC's, which I am referring to because they cannot change the quests they have already made. Well I guess they could but they won't. So I am hoping the DLCs will be better because they haven't already made them other than Dawnguard... Besides I just want to rant about how svcky some of the quests are...

Before adding more emotional context,i would exchange many of the awefully outdated animations.

Bethesda has always done this. Go play Morrowind or Oblivion and your choice is generally "yes" or sometimes "no." Hell I remember thinking it was a special treat when I got to tell Dagoth Ur if I was Nerevarine or not (in my opinion).

What's odd though is that I guess they saw Fallout 1 and 2 and saw all the dialog options, and in attempt to stay true to the Fallout series, they provided more dialog options. All of Fallout 3 has three dialog paths: good, neutral, and evil karma responses.
I too would've expected them to adopt such a system since it seems clear as day it's superior, but instead they went back to the "yes/no" dialog system they'd used before....

To me that says they consider it "an Elder Scrolls tradition," which is a shame because that's a pretty crappy tradition.

I miss the fun dialog of New Vegas, where I could respond to other NPCs with statements like "What the hell is a Chicago?" or "Are you hitting on me, Miss Cassidy?"
Oh and New Vegas speech check system...THAT was awesome. I know it's a small, needless detail but it was SO hysterical.

If they could have something like Dragon Age Origins. Those guys did good imo.