What's your opinion of Japanese RPGs? What do you think are the main differences between them and your own games? And do you think Elder Scrolls games in the future would use anything other than a firstperson view?

I’ll answer the last one first. No, we would always include a firstperson view in The Elder Scolls. I think the main difference for us – it’s not just Japanese RPGs, although certainly more with those than any others – is how open-ended we are. You know, I admittedly haven’t played many Japanese RPGs, mostly because I haven’t really enjoyed them. They have lots of cutscenes (at least the ones I’ve played), lots of dialogue – and obviously we have lots of dialogue as well (Obviosly - VD) – and they’re very linear and very scripted. With those games it’s very much a greased rail – you always know exactly where anybody is at however many hours they’re into one of those sorts of games, whereas in ours it’s very much a player-driven thing – you decide what your story’s going to be. You don’t want to do any of the main quest? You can play the game for 100 hours and never touch the main quest. That’s a huge departue, and like I say not just in Japanese RPGs but really for many other RPGs. I think there are a lot of other things but at its core that’s the most striking difference.​