I think the lack of autonomy is largely due to the move away from written social encounters to voice acting. When good synthetic voicing arrives we may see the

I think the lack of autonomy is largely due to the move away from written social encounters to voice acting. When good synthetic voicing arrives we may see the options open back up. I have an easier time with written rather than spoken communication, so I miss the walls of text in games like daggerfall or baldurs gate. In daggerfall a lot of the texts was generated, we could do that so much better now. Quest markers, fast travel, and automapping also made the smaller hand sculpted (rather than generated) worlds seem even smaller.