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Todd Howard believes "meaningful" character interaction is the future of RPGs 

Bethesda's Todd Howard believes the future of RPGs will be dependent on the character reacting in a way that's "meaningful" to the player and the choices they have made.

Speaking in a video interview with GameFront's E3 correspondent Wil Wheaton, Howard said RPGs in the future will come down to more than just "nice-looking" environments.

"I still think you see role-playing creeping into everything," he said. "I see it in all games, with like–how do you reward the player, with whatever he’s doing? Exploring, building up his character, you see it with everything.

"The thing in general with gaming, and you see it with RPGs more, is having characters react to you in a way that you believe, or is really meaningful, with the choices you made. I think we can build pretty good environments. A lot of people can, not just us. In gaming, doing realistic and nice-looking environments, I think people are pretty good at that.

"I think the next wave is really characters. How they respond where it feels as real as the environments do. We’re not there yet."

You can watch the interview below. In it, Howard also talks about how impressed he was with The Great Battles of Skyrim video which was created using various mods.

Cover image for YouTube video

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Stephany Nunneley-Jackson

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Stephany is VG247’s News Editor, with 22 years experience (with 15 of them at VG247). With a brain that lacks adhesive ducks, the ill-tempered, chaotic neutral fembot does her best to bring you the most interesting gaming news. She is also unofficially the site’s Lord of the Rings/Elder Scrolls Editor.

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