Xbox.com: Here's a silly question: Why is it called Radiant A.I.? What does that mean?

Gavin Carter: The "Radiant" part of the title refers to the way a character's awareness isn't strictly limited to a few hard-scripted objects or activities. It radiates out into the surrounding environment and beyond. They can choose to interact with anything they come into contact with based on parameters we set up when we create them. This includes having conversations with one another, sitting down and reading books, buying food and supplies from shops, farming, exploring, engaging in combat with creatures or one another, and a wide range of other activities.

Xbox.com: We've heard a lot about the Radiant A.I. system your team has been working on, that each of Oblivion's 1,000 NPCs is controlled by its own agenda, schedule, and motivation. Why go this route? How will it impact the gamer's experience?

Gavin Carter: The lack of interesting A.I. for NPCs was probably the top complaint people had with Morrowind, so we took that to task from the very first days of Oblivion's development. The intent was to develop a system that could give NPCs a wide variety of interesting behaviors, as well as be extensible enough to apply quickly and easily to all 1500+ people who inhabit our game world. The impact on the gamer should greatly alleviate the feeling of a static world like Morrowind.

GamerReports: In the previous Elder Scrolls games, players could literally spends hours and a ton of money creating and upgrading spells and items. In Oblivion is that still true? Are there still certain items and spells that can only be obtained with perseverance and hard work? On the other hand are there still spells and items that will be available to players who do not wish to spend many hours and much money that will be just as useful?

Pete Hines: Yes, you can still spend lots of time doing that sort of thing, but much of it requires you to spend time and effort improving the skills related to that skill, whether it be enchanting, alchemy, armorer, destruction magic, or whatever. As you improve each of your skills you’ll reach different levels of ability that will unlock new things you can do with that skill, such as the ability to repair magic armor and weapons or to create new spells. Or, as you say, you can simply go and buy new spells or items from vendors, or you’ll find scrolls in the world that allow you to cast different spells. And you’ll always be finding new types of armor, weapons, and different items as you explore the world, and these items will level with you so that as your character gets better, so does the loot you find.